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Saddle up for a joyful ride in 'Dreamer'

BY JOHN ANDERSON | John Anderson is a regular contributor to Newsday.

October 21, 2005

FOR THE GIRL:Kurt Russell plays a horse trainer whose daughter (Dakota Fanning) encourages him to nurse a filly back to health in ÂDreamer.Â (Joe Lederer / DreamWorks Pictures)

Her adult teeth haven't come in yet and already Dakota Fanning, 11, is one of the best actresses on screen. Which gives one pause: What we know about the fates of so many successful 4-foot-high film stars gives a Fanning performance unintended pathos. She and history make a heartbreaking couple.

But so do she and Kurt Russell, the iron man of the mainstream, in John Gatins' wonderful "Dreamer." A horse movie, a sports movie and a movie about family, it shows what can be done with overworked and potentially sentimental livestock fodder when everything about the production is first-rate. "Dreamer" falters occasionally; Fanning's lines are occasionally too wise, her delivery too ripe, her maturity too precocious. But it's the kind of film that generates tears and ovations, and if you're in the mood for one (as I was), you're a goner.

Russell is Ben Crane (can you be more American?), a down-on-his-luck trainer of thoroughbred racehorses, who has sold off his services, along with most of the land where he used to raise horses with his now-estranged father, Pop (Kris Kristofferson, who's having a crustiness contest with Russell). Although Ben advises against it, his arrogant boss, Palmer (David Morse), pushes him to start their promising filly Soñador, who breaks a leg in the stretch. Everything, and everyone, says the horse will be put down. But Ben, partly out of defiance, and partly because his daughter Cale (Fanning) is on the scene, buys the horse and keeps her alive.

Russell has seldom had a role in which he's had to be subordinate to anyone, and this is partly why Ben's plight is so painful and right. With dwindling assets and a crippled horse on his hands, it takes all his mettle to maintain his dignity in front of Cale, who adores him. Their journey, and Soñador's, are about healing and the value of taking risks.

Gatins is making his directorial debut, but he's helped write a number of sports-related movies ("Varsity Blues," "Hardball," "Coach Carter"). What's remarkable is how the old "National Velvet"-style motifs can be recycled so plausibly and with so much tension and emotion. Of course, Gatins does have the advantage of having a Dakota Fanning, who's delightful, and you hope she stays that way.