Secretariat

The Triple Crown-winning horse gets his own movie, and it’s a mixed bag. Diane Lane gives it her best as Penny Chenery, who risked it all on a colt they called Big Red, a horse that would become legend among horses (and people, too). John Malkovich steals many a scene as Lucien Laurin, the eccentric trainer who helped Secretariat attain his winning ways, and wore many funny hats. The movie does a great job with all of the aspects of horseracing, and Lane’s scenes with the horse and Malkovich are winners. The movie stumbles when it comes to Chenery’s family life, with Dylan Walsh a complete bore as her mildly annoyed husband. Still, you have to give director Randall Wallace credit for making horse races where we know the outcome awfully exciting.