Flicka

A girl (Alison Lohman) defies her rancher father (Tim McGraw) when she befriends a wild horse. Author Mary O’Hara might scarcely recognize her novel My Friend Flicka, but who cares? She’s dead, nobody reads the book anymore, and the 1943 movie is forgotten. So, in Mark Rosenthal and Lawrence Konner’s script, O’Hara’s boy-and-his-horse story becomes a girl-and-her-father story—and, oh yeah, there’s a horse out there somewhere on the back 40. Director Michael Mayer can’t muster even halfhearted enthusiasm for the script’s many clichés, but who can blame him? “We’ll have to sell the ranch!” “You’ll never ride that loco animal!” “How dare you sell my horse!” “You’re crazy if you think you can win this race!” Yawn. It’s not bad—pretty people, pretty animals and pretty scenery—it’s only pointless.