Secretariat

The year is 1969. Penny Chenery Tweedy (Diane Lane) is a happy woman. She is married to Jack Tweedy (Dylan Walsh) and is blessed with 4 wonderful children Sarah (Carissa Capobianco), Kate (Amanda Michalka), Chris (Sean Michael Cunningham) and John (Jacob Rhodes). They live in Denver. As a child, Penny was extremely into horses. Her father Chris (Scot Glen) owns a stud farm and is extremely well known in the business. It is a difficult business to be in but he has seen it through its several ups and downs. But of late, he has been suffering from dementia and has made some decisions which have almost cost them the farm. However, thanks to Penny’s mother, they have managed to stay afloat so far. As a child, Penny grew up on the farm with a special liking for the equine. Under her father’s tutelage she learnt pretty much everything there was to know about the business. But with marriage and starting a family, she was forced to put her familial responsibilities before her and let her first love take a back seat.


However, a strange and sad twist of events gets her back to what she completely loves doing. Penny loses her mother and has no choice but to go back home for the funeral. After the last rites are completed, she quickly realizes that her father is not quite capable of running the business on his own. Her brother Hollis (Dylan Baker) is of the opinion is that they should start looking at selling of a few of the horses and maybe even the farm in the long run. But something tells Penny that this is the opportunity she was waiting for. At the funeral, she meets Bull Hancock (Fred Dalton Thompson), her father’s close friend and financial associate who offers to help her out with anything that she needs.

Now Penny is no mug with respect to horses. And she quickly starts sending the message out that she is here and she means business. She starts with firing her trainer who has been making utmost use of her father’s illness to short change the Chenerys of a few million dollars on the sale of some of their best horses. Then will the support of her father’s secretary, Ms. Ham (Margon Martindale) and Bull, she tries to put things back together. Firstly there is a small matter of the Toss. Chris Chenery Sr. may seem to be not business minded but has taken some really good decisions in his life. Where everyone was investing in studs, he also understood the importance of mares and has invested in a few solid ones during his life time. Two of his mares are due now thanks to the efforts of a leading stud owned by the then richest man in America, Ogden Phipps (James Cromwell). However, since Ogden owns the stud, he gets to choose which foal to pick up. As luck would have it, Penny loses the toss but gets to keep the foal that she wanted in the first place. That is the story of the birth of “Secretariat”.

Secretariat is Randal Wallace’s 3rd attempt @ direction. He is best known for directing the Man in the Iron Mask and writing cult movies such as Brave Heart and Pearl Harbour. With Secretariat, he also proves that his direction capabilities are not just a flash in the pan. It is most difficult to direct movies when you are working with animals. The unpredictability makes it even more exciting. And Wallace comes out of this effort not just much richer in experience but also has not done any damage to his credibility. I may be downplaying the quality of movie making but Wallace did miss a thing or two. Firstly, the movie is extremely slow. It meanders along its way and slowly builds up pace. But doesn’t really reach an extreme peak till the last few minutes. The change of gears, if any, goes unnoticed. As if one has moved from 1st to 6th gear and then comes to a stand still. Therefore the movie doesn’t qualify as the most compactly made one to date. However, the editing and cinematography is very good to say the least. Lovely use of camera angles to get the right measure of the situation that is being shown.

The acting, however was just about adequate. But for a superb performance from John Malkovich as the trainer Lucien Laurin, there is nothing really worth writing home about. Malkovich, however comes trumps in his role of the eccentric but honest trainer who helps turn around the fortunes of the Chenery family business. He is effortless and takes away the screen presence factor from everyone in the movie. Diane Lane is also very good with the role of Penny but not at her best. Secretariat is based on the true story of the horse which goes onto become America’s most successful one to date. It has its moments of thrills but is also significantly about one woman’s fight to make her mark in what is otherwise considered to be a man’s world. Overall a good solid effort. To put it in a sentence – If you loved Sea Biscuit, you will like Secretariat. To me Sea Biscuit is an 8 on 10 – a movie worthy of its Oscar nomination. Secretariat doesn’t come close but is reasonably entertaining. 6 on 10.