Review: The Horse Whisperer

I caught a recent television broadcast of Under the Cherry Moon, a vanity project directed by and starring the Artist formerly known as Prince. In it, a young, vibrant Kristin Scott Thomas floated above the leaden flotsam -- a star has rarely been born in such inauspicious circumstances.

Since then, Scott Thomas has established herself as a highly capable actress whose specialty tended towards acerbic bachelorettes (Four Weddings and a Funeral) and repressed spinsters (Angels and Insects). [With all due respect to Jennifer Jason Leigh, Scott Thomas would have made a smashing Catherine Sloper, the insecure heiress in Washington Square.] So proficient was she in etching committedly dark and flawed characters that one critic likened her to a female Daniel Day-Lewis. Then The English Patient came along and revolutionized Scott Thomas' brittle, aristo image. Tanned, sandswept and unbearably glamorous, she combined the aristocratic breeziness of Katharine Hepburn with the simmering, undercurrent passion of Grace Kelly.

I say all this because her intelligence and mild hauteur, which serve as the foundation to her best performances, are the very qualities which undermine her performance in Robert Redford's latest directorial effort, The Horse Whisperer.

Scott Thomas portrays New York magazine editor Annie MacLean, whose daughter Grace (Scarlett Johansson) has lost a leg in a brutal horseback riding accident. Despite her husband's misgivings, Annie decides to take Grace and her horse, Pilgrim, to Montana to meet Tom Booker (Redford). Initially commissioned to rehabilitate Pilgrim, Booker soon helps to rebuild Annie and Grace's rocky relationship as well as commencing a serious flirtation with Annie.

During her stay in Montana, Annie makes the transition from brittle, patrician wife to an earthy, sensual woman. What is needed during this transformation is a display of vulnerability on Scott Thomas' part. The actress makes it work -- her talent is bountiful, after all -- but you see the work, especially in her scenes with Redford. The girlishness that must hint at the woman underneath the facade is at odds with Scott Thomas' inherent intelligence. It is not that she wouldn't be dissuaded by Redford's Tom Booker, it's that she seems far too clever for this game.

Despite her miscasting and quite possibly because of it, The Horse Whisperer succeeds as both an old-fashioned romance and picturesque drama. Redford elicits natural, laidback performances from Chris Cooper and Dianne Wiest, as Booker's brother and sister-in-law, respectively. Johansson as Grace is a precious find. Possessed of an Uma Thurmanesque face, she gives an impressive performance as the physically and emotionally scarred girl. Only Sam Neill as Annie's husband is underused.

Redford, who directs himself for the first time, delivers a charming movie star performance. As a director, he does not waste a frame of film. That's quite an achievement considering the film nearly runs three hours and Redford indulges in a vanity shot or two (quite pardonable since Redford isn't as in love with himself as Warren Beatty is). Redford keeps the film at a deliberate pace and takes his time in unfolding the narrative. A good gambit as he has a great feel for the material which weds two of his films' running themes: autopsies of waspish paradise (Ordinary People, Quiz Show) and ordinary people in mythic landscapes (The Milagro Beanfield War, A River Runs Through It).

The union succeeds partly because of Redford's eye for small, telling gestures (Annie straightening the tablecloth, a look Grace gives Annie or even the setting down of cuff links) and his understandable love of the Montana landscape. To say this film is stunningly photographed is to say we breathe to live; there are so many brazenly beautiful images here.

The most noteworthy sequence is the axis on which the film spins: Grace and Pilgrim's horrifying accident which results in the death of Grace's best friend as well as Grace and Pilgrim's physical and emotional wounds. This sequence is preceded, and later interspersed with, scenes of the girls meeting. It is early morning. The sunrise is still a shadow. Snow as far as the eye can see. It is an unearthly winter's dream. Two girls. So much life. Minutes later. The lambs have been slaughtered.

The Horse Whisperer

Directed by: Robert Redford

Written by: Eric Roth, Richard LaGravanese; based on the novel by Nicholas Sparks

Starring: Robert Redford, Kristin Scott Thomas, Scarlett Johansson, Sam Neill, Chris Cooper, Dianne Wiest, Kate Bosworth, Cherry Jones