The Horse Whisperer (1998)

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

Blistering performances.

The mother of a severely traumatized daughter enlists the aid of a unique horse trainer to help the girl's equally injured horse. The biggest problem with The Horse Whisperer to me at least was definitely the runtime i mean the film is 170 minutes and even tho i appreciate it for developing things in detail both in terms of it's plot and it's character development and situations, the film could have been told in somewhere around 120 to 125 minutes right? Also i didn't like the fact that Sam Neill's character was almost forgettable at times and takes half of the film to show up again. But even with it's problems the 3 leading perfomances from Robert Redford, Kristin Scott Thomas and a Young Scarlett Johansson were brillaint and the best part of the film especially Johansson who proves that she can do more than just Avengers and Ghost in the Shell. The cinematography and the overall direction from Redford is amazing and the rest of the supporting cast also does a good job in their specific parts, overall The Horse Whisperer does have it's fair share of problems but it's still an enjoyable drama with the best intentions both in mind, spirit and paper. (7.5/10)

I'd say, that it was an interesting movie, I'm pretty sure horse whispering doesn't work. Horses don't pay much attention unless you shout at them. Then they can get offended or saddened, depending on their personality. The scenery is gorgeous, the people work well together. The script is great. But it does fall a little short on the horse angle. But since most people know very little about horses, it won't ruin it, it didn't even ruin it for me. I just said, "Ok, they don't know what they're talking about here." I can't emphasize enough about the scenery. Awesome, just awesome.

This is the worse movie ever made. A contrived and convoluted story line with romance chocolate pudding with peanuts and corn written all over it. The girl almost gets the horse killed. They go to the horse whisperer who starts having an affair with the mother, who is a real malcontent bitch. The Husband conveniently seems like a real dork for plot convenience. The affair is quite a shameless one filled with excuses. The Horse whisperer lets the girl off the hook absolving her of responsibility for getting the horse hurt. Nothing mystical about this movie. A romance trash novel put to screen. It is enough make a rational person go into projectile vomiting.

Annie MacLean (Kristin Scott Thomas) is a bossy editor at a magazine and facing accusation of misconduct in her job. Her daughter Grace (Scarlett Johansson) goes riding her horse Pilgrim with her friend Judith (Kate Bosworth). An accident leaves them run over by a truck. Judith is killed while Grace loses a leg and Pilgrim suffers traumatic injuries. Annie is stubborn and dismayed at Grace's depression. She tracks down Montana rancher Tom Booker (Robert Redford) or the Horse Whisperer to help. She drags Grace and Pilgrim to Montana despite her husband Robert (Sam Neill), Grace and Tom's objection. She surprises Tom at his range where he lives with his brother Frank (Chris Cooper), Frank's wife Diane (Dianne Wiest) and family.It's a very interesting start. It's a nice family drama for almost an hour. There is a lot of good family relation dysfunction set up. Then they get to Montana and Redford slows everything down. I don't ride and the horse whispering doesn't appeal to me. There is some beautiful slow whispering but the mother takes away too much of the focus. The mother's development goes into an unnecessary place. It only takes the story away from the daughter. The family dysfunction is still good but it just devolves into something less compelling. It spends too much time on unnecessary and distracting issues.