Dir/scr: John Gatins. US.2005. 104mins.

Horseracing often has thereputation of being a sport ruled by, and mainly for, the wealthy - thoseunencumbered by the pesky constraints of regular, office-bred employment. Asthe recent critical and crossover screen success of Seabiscuit proved,though, the same general rules of other underdog movies apply to tales ofuplift set in the world of horseracing.

The new family drama Dreameris a bit less of an overt sports movie - it's equally if not foremost aboutreconciliation and settlement - but it's no less of a film than Gary Ross' 2003Oscar nominee. At once familiar and fresh, it's a stirring and heartfelt workthat re-establishes the simple, beautiful immediacy of emotional investment atthe movies.

Box office prospects for thefilm should be good both domestically and abroad (although note that just under20% of Seabiscuit's $148m worldwide gross came from international) asthe film radiates positivity and genuineness - feelings frequently soughtonscreen but rarely achieved with this little artifice.

Strong reviews and positiveword-of-mouth will only drive upwards grosses outside of the usual family dramamarket, and ancillary value will remain strong, both as a solid entry in DakotaFanning's film canon as she matures as an actress and as a first-rate,feel-good tearjerker in its own right.

The film centres around theCrane family of Kentucky. Patriarch Ben (Russell) long ago gave up on many ofhis own dreams as a horseman and now works as a trainer, helping make othermen's fortunes in stakes races. Ben lives on a slightly run-down farm with hiswife Lilly (Shue), their daughter Cale (Fanning) and his semi-estranged father,Pop (Kris Kristofferson), who mostly keeps to himself in the nearby guesthouse.

When promising young fillySonador, or Sonya for short, is brought down in a race by a career-endingbroken leg, Ben balks at putting her to sleep in front of Cale, and gets intoan altercation with his boss Everett (Morse).

Given his walking papers andSonya as severance pay, Ben starts nursing the horse back to health with thehelp of his two loyal friends, jockey Manolin (Rodriguez) and stable managerBalon (Guzman). Their idea is to hopefully breed Sonya when she's in good enoughshape, but the discovery of her infertility throws a wrench in those plans.Devastated and on the brink of financial ruin, Ben doesn't know what to do.

Cale, meanwhile, develops astrong bond with Sonya, and so Ben - sensing in his daughter traces of his ownheadstrong, youthful inquisitiveness - lets her take a more central role in thehorse's training, even though initially he remains sceptical of the animal'schances as a racer.

As Sonya becomes strongerand stronger, though, and does well in a stakes race, the Crane family growscloser and closer, with Ben's strained relationship with his own father bridgedby their mutual hope for Sonya in the prestigious Breeders' Cup Classic.

Writer-director John Gatins,like Sonador herself, is a long-shot success story for this type of film (basedloosely on the horse Mariah's Storm, who fractured a left bone in 1993 but cameback to win several races, including the Turfway Breeders' Cup, two yearslater), having cut his teeth writing or co-writing sports flicks such as VarsityBlues, Summer Catch, Hardball and Coach Carter forproducers Mike Tollin and Brian Robbins.

In this, his directorialdebut, Gatins showcases a disarmingly engaging less-is-more approach, wiselygiving wide berth to his actors and nursing an impressive amount of audiencedoubt and uncertainty in the face of such a potentially staid and formulaiccomeback narrative. In an era when so many first-time directors feel itnecessary to make an impression through flash and mannered stylistic choices,Gatins knows that simplicity best serves his story here.

Filmed on location inKeeneland, in the middle of Kentucky's famed Bluegrass region, Dreamer feelscompletely of a piece and expertly put together. The race sequences are smartlychoreographed, by wrangler Rusty Hendrickson, and crisply shot, but not sobloated that they distract from the main focus of familial friction.

The performances, though,are what help elevate Dreamer from the merely credible to the inspiring.Following on from her well-received turn in War Of The Worlds, Fanningdelivers another solid performance that could receive some awardsconsideration, particularly from critics' groups looking at an annual body ofwork.

Russell, too, is wonderfullyeffective. At one point he attends a school's parents' night and reads aloud athinly veiled story Cale has written about an uncertain king and his horse. Alesser actor would turn it into corny monologue showboating, but Russelltransforms it into moving scene about the restorative powers of family andfaithfulness.

Production companies
Tollin/Robbins/Hunt Lowry Productions
DreamWorks
Hyde Park Entertainment

US distribution
DreamWorks

International sales
Hyde Park Entertainment

Executive producers
Ashok Amritraj
Jon Jashni
Bill Johnson
Stacy Cohen
Caitlin Scanlon

Producers
Mike Tollin
Brian Robbins

Cinematography
Fred Murphy

Production design
Brent Thomas

Editor
David Rosenbloom

Music
John Debney

Main cast
Dakota Fanning
Kurt Russell
Kris Kristofferson
Elisabeth Shue
Freddy Rodriguez
David Morse
Luis Guzman
Oded Fehr