There’s something about Dakota Fanning that, well… look, she gives us the heebie jeebies. She’s only 11 years-old, and we know we shouldn’t judge kids and everything, but she kind of freaks us out.
Maybe it’s because of the films that Dakota has starred in: she played a spooked-out girl in Man On Fire, she played a spooked-out girl in Hide And Seek, and she played a spooked-out girl in War Of The Worlds. Obviously Dakota Fanning can do the ‘precociously haunted infant’ thing very well. But can she play a normal little girl in a happy film? That’s the question about Dreamer, a lovely film about a lovely horse. Whether or not Dakota Fanning can manage to star in an entire film without doing her spooked-out face is quite another thing.
We haven’t seen Dreamer, but plenty of other people have – here’s our handy review digest…
First – the plot of Dreamer, as told by MaryAnn Johanson from flickfilosopher: "Please don’t shoot the horse with the broken leg, Daddy, Dakota
Fanning with her enormous eyes brimming with tears and her quivering
lip doesn’t exactly say, but she might as well have. Please nurse the
horse back to health at tremendous personal expense and sacrifice so
you can later give it to me as a prezzie and I can train her and we can
enter the massively prestigious Breeder’s Cup race with her! Pul-eeeeeeze!"
Which is all good and fine, but is Dreamer any good? Well, it
seems to depend on how blousey you are. Let’s take the good
reviews first:
The Yahoo Movie Mom liked Dreamer, and especially Dakota, who is described as "Utterly natural, utterly sure, utterly in
command of her performance she trusts herself and her material and
never pushes or tries to keep our attention. She barely seems to notice
whether she has it; yet we cannot take our eyes off of her."
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat from Spiritualityhealth.com were also fans: "It is always a pleasure to watch any movie that celebrates the ability
of an animal to revive human beings who are devoid of hope. This
spiritual capacity makes them true miracle workers."
So Dreamer is a hit with mothers and hippies. What about people who
don’t feel inspired by the laughter of children? Do they like Dreamer?
Ben Kenigsberg from The Village Voice: "Adults will be restless as stabled bucks, but even children may need
unusually high Ritalin doses to slog through the visual and dramatic
indifference on display."
Fernando F. Croce from Slant Magazine: "Dreamer loses to Seabiscuit by a nose in the race for most inane underhorse, err, underdog crowd-pleaser in recent years."
Walter Chaw from Film Freak Central: "The sort of thing that should be put down because it just can’t be fixed. Trying would only cause that much more suffering."
That’ll be a ‘no’, then. Dreamer opens today.
[story by Stuart Heritage]
Mr bumpy says
“she played a spooked-out girl in Man On Fire”
Say what?
*reads the rest* Oh I see the problem, you’re an asshole. That explains it.
Fan says
Yeah you’re right, asshole indeed.
Ken says
Dakota Fanning is living one of every little girl’s daydreams, one up there with marrying a prince. Be nice to the cutie-pie.
James says
Dear Mr Bumpy and Fan,
Have you had a knock on the head? Since when does someone calling someone a “spooked out girl” warrant then being called an asshole? What the fuck is wrong with you? Have you seen Man on Fire? Have you seen War of the Worlds? If you have then you’ll know exactly what the author is talking about. And how can he be an “asshole” when most of the review is bringing to us the opinions of others?
Next time you think about crawling out from under your rock to insult people who write an artilce that you don’t agree with, please think again.
Kevin Bailey says
Dakota Fanning is the only thing that makes this mediocre movie anything close to watchable. She is by FAR the most talented child actor in the last 25 years–and probably ever. BTW, she has played a number of different character types. Included in this would be her coming out role in I Am Sam, in which she played the daughter of a mentally handicapped man–and did so exquisitely. When one considers the fact that she was only 7 years old at the time, the performance is made even more magnificent. She also played in the forgettable (but for her) comedy Uptown Girls. The author of this piece CLEARLY didn’t do much research into Fanning’s film history before writing his opinions. She is FAR from being typecast as a troubled little girl.