Thoughts on The Horse Whisperer

 

via Tumblr/Courtesy Disney

"... I envy your mother. I do. It must be great to be her age and to be at that point in life where you have no more guesswork. No more impossible decisions to make. And, anyway, it doesn't matter because all the worries and all the wrong turns that you made are as valuable and as, as, as cherished as the things that you did right. ... Oh, must be such a relief. Must be such peace in that."
"I don't think you have to wait to be her age to find that kind of peace."

A few days ago, after the Uvalde school shooting, I talked with some fellow soap opera fans. Most of us do not believe the genre's current writers are capable of ideally depicting school shootings and other impactful tragedies. Soap operas themselves used to be the best genre for that sort of storytelling. "(You've got to have) the commitment that little or nothing is getting skipped," I wrote, mindful of how much can be told with the prelude to, event of and impact from a tragedy. "This is not a storyline that's over and done within two weeks. It has to matter." 

My attitude was tested repeatedly with The Horse Whisperer. Robert Redford, directing himself for the first time, starred opposite Kristin Scott Thomas, in her American followup to The English Patient. Okay, there's a movie legend opposite the then-reigning celebrated British woman. They're playing a pair who will share intimacy in almost every way. Annie and Tom come closest to actual sex while dancing to "A Soft Place to Fall." The scene and song are excellent, but I want to know what made Redford and screenwriters Eric Roth (Forrest Gump) and Richard LaGravenese (The Bridges of Madison County) opt for symbolism. It wasn't as ambiguous or concise when it came to Annie's transformation. A workaholic New York City magazine editor becomes a fully-loving mother and unashamed woman in love. We get to follow her every step of the way.

Montana, evidently, will do that to a girl. Around the time that Annie falls in love with Tom, the scenery porn becomes scenery S&M porn. I should have anticipated the worst. The ranch shared by Tom, Frank (Chris Cooper) and Diane (Dianne Wiest) gets an admittedly deserved star entrance. Later on, though, it's like the movie just can't stop taunting viewers. "As if you'll ever find anything as beautiful as this landscape! Look at these mountains! Look at them! Look at how damn majestic everything is! You're going to leave your theater and go back out into the ugly city or character-free suburbs. If you have any true conscience, you'll be struck with nausea or ideally, blindness." Okay, maybe things aren't that extreme. The thing about Whisperer is, it's one where gorgeous images go from breaking up the monotony to supplying the monotony.

"Do you think I was right to come?"

"I can't answer that, Annie."

"Well, I'll know soon enough. If I made a mistake, Grace will let me know."

"She's a strong kid. She gets that from somebody."

Scarlett Johansson didn't give a bad performance in Whisperer.  I especially loved Grace finally sharing the story of her riding accident with Tom. That said, we already saw the whole thing happen. Taking a shortcut resulted in Judith (Kate Bosworth) and Gulliver dying, Grace undergoing a partial amputation and Pilgrim (High Tower, Cash, Maverick and Kentucky Pet) getting severe facial wounds and emotional instability. I'll be honest. I'm ranking the horses above Scarlett and making her share fourth place with Ty Hillman, a two-and-done actor who played Joe, Tom's nephew. I see that Roth and LaGravenese differed significantly from Nicholas Evans' novel in one other way. While it's implied that Grace figures out there's more to her mom and Tom than just mutual respect, she opts not to confront either adult. On the one hand, I wish Johansson and Scott Thomas would have gotten one more significant scene together. On the other hand, does Grace really need to do much else after the inevitable? No points for thinking Grace and Pilgrim will ride again.

Clocking in at 169 minutes, Whisperer is hurt by its bloat. Much of the movie either has happened before or will happen again. There are also scenes that just shouldn't happen or at least could have been combined, like the stylized images of Pilgrim galloping in the desert and Annie learning the history of horse whispering. On the whole, I liked the acting. Wiest is particularly strong opposite Scott Thomas. I also liked Sam Neill, even if the character of Robert doesn't do much beyond what you'd expect, namely being the parent Grace initially likes best and later serve as the leader of his and Annie's inevitable scene over the fate of their marriage. Neill ultimately rides behind Redford and Scott Thomas. When they're not overwhelmed by their surroundings, and get to a point once in a while, they make a good duo.

"(describing his ex-wife) ... She wasn't happy here. 'Too much space,' she said."

"So why didn't you stay in Chicago?"

"Wasn't enough space. It just wasn't meant to be."

"But how did you know ... for sure?"

"Knowing's the easy part. Saying it out loud is the hard part."

"Seems so obvious now, doesn't it? 'We weren't right for each other. If only we knew then.'"

"I didn't love her 'cause it was right. I just loved her."

Recommended with reservations.

Thoughts:

-- "Do you ever sit still for just a minute?" "Well, you sit too long in New York and you get renovated."

-- Box Office: Grossing nearly $75.4 million on a $75 million budget, this opened at No. 2, stayed in the top 10 for at least eight weekends and came in at No. 26 for 1998.

-- Awards Watch: Both Whisperer and Redford as a director lost at the Golden Globes to Saving Private Ryan. Over at the Oscars, "A Soft Place to Fall" lost to "When You Believe" from The Prince of Egypt. Johansson lost the Youth in Film award to tying winners Jena Malone (Stepmom) and Lindsay Lohan (The Parent Trap). Finally, the quartet of Redford, Scott Thomas, Neill and Johansson all lost at the Blockbuster Entertainment Awards to Nicolas Cage (City of Angels), Drew Barrymore (Ever After: A Cinderella Story), Cuba Gooding Jr. (When Dreams May Come) and Anjelica Huston (Ever After), respectively.

-- Critic's Corner, the movie: "Unlike the juicy bestseller that inspired it, (it's) so chaste and conservative, it's practically Republican," Rita Kempley wrote. Variety: "Exquisitely crafted, morally and thematically mature. ... Nearly all the corn, sentimentality and two-bit symbolism of the book has been removed."

-- Critic's Corner, Redford: "(He) has shown that he has a real feeling for the West -- he's not a movie tourist," Roger Ebert wrote. "There is a magnificance in his treatment here that dignifies what is essentially a soap opera." (Watch it, Roge!) "(He) displays great intensity and concentration in his direction, abetted by an agile shorthand in the service of character revelation that deftly skirts any obvious exposition." Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: "(Annie) falls in love with the charismatic feller with the golden hair. Beautifully backlit as he perpetually is, who wouldn't?"

-- Memorable Music: The score is now 13-11, with a point for "A Soft Place to Fall." It stands on its own, but works especially well in the context of Annie and Tom's practically dream-like dance experience.

-- Hey, It's!: Cherry Jones and Jessalyn Gilsig. Plus Paula Yates and Damien Hirst on the covers of Cover, Annie's magazine. Ebert said Annie was clearly modeled on Tina Brown, then-editor of The New Yorker. The magainze itself profiled Redford at the time of Whisperer's release under the headline, "Existential Cowboy."

-- This is the first of three 1998 movies LaGravenese is credited for. The others, both on the viewing schedule, are Living Out Loud and Beloved.

-- "Don't they believe in signs around here?" "What would they say? '10 miles to big rock.' '20 miles to bigger rock.'"

-- Next: The Opposite of Sex. On deck: Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.