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Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

I had high hopes. Right from the outset the treatment of the teen's disability and her response was unbelievable. The parents were poorly acted and the relationship not credible. Full of clichés.The Redford character - the whisperer - was without interesting dialogue - ridiculous aphorisms spouted from his mouth.The ranch family was so clichéd as well. The little boy simply could not act.Just a completely silly movie where you could not care about any of the characters.

This is a pretty good story, a bit too slow at times. The scenery is what makes this film tolerable, sometimes enjoyable. Some of the equestrian practices shown are not depicting correct or safe methods, but this is normal in films. Horses don't flip out like people in the first place. They may be scared of places, sounds and things where the trauma occurs, but would never become psychotic as shown here. The other troubling thing I kept seeing over and over in the film is Scarlet Johansson's character kept trying to do things with her prosthetic instead of her good leg. I myself had a slow healing broken ankle and spent 9 months on a cast. You learn to use your good leg quickly, like when trying to climb a corral fence and mounting a horse from the side of your good leg, not your bad. These little film maker faux pas and the acting by Kristin Scott Thomas (trying too hard, obvious fake smiles- how hard is it to smile?) kept this from being an excellent movie.

Annie MacLean (Kristin Scott Thomas) is a bossy editor at a magazine and facing accusation of misconduct in her job. Her daughter Grace (Scarlett Johansson) goes riding her horse Pilgrim with her friend Judith (Kate Bosworth). An accident leaves them run over by a truck. Judith is killed while Grace loses a leg and Pilgrim suffers traumatic injuries. Annie is stubborn and dismayed at Grace's depression. She tracks down Montana rancher Tom Booker (Robert Redford) or the Horse Whisperer to help. She drags Grace and Pilgrim to Montana despite her husband Robert (Sam Neill), Grace and Tom's objection. She surprises Tom at his range where he lives with his brother Frank (Chris Cooper), Frank's wife Diane (Dianne Wiest) and family.It's a very interesting start. It's a nice family drama for almost an hour. There is a lot of good family relation dysfunction set up. Then they get to Montana and Redford slows everything down. I don't ride and the horse whispering doesn't appeal to me. There is some beautiful slow whispering but the mother takes away too much of the focus. The mother's development goes into an unnecessary place. It only takes the story away from the daughter. The family dysfunction is still good but it just devolves into something less compelling. It spends too much time on unnecessary and distracting issues.

The Horse Whisperer is that rare magical film that will lift your spirits while making you sad at the same time by giving you a dose of harsh reality. Beautifully filmed with the wide-open vistas of Montana contrasting against the big-city enclosed feeling of New York, this film brings deep contrasts across so many levels of landscapes, emotions, and characters.The plot involves a well-to-do family in the New York area composed of mother Annie (Kristen S. Thomas) who is a bossy editor of Cover fashion magazine, father Sam Neill (subdued lawyerly type), and their young teenage daughter Grace, wonderfully played by a burgeoning actress named Scarlett Johannson – ever hear of her? Grace loves to ride her favorite horse, Pilgrim, which forms one of the central themes.Emotions run deep and strong in undercurrents of relations. Does mom love her husband? Does mom love her job? Does mom love her daughter, or want to control her life. Does dad protect their daughter too much? It's clear that Grace loves dad, but less clear is how she feels about mom. These themes are prevalent undercurrents throughout the film. You can really see the ability in Scarlett Johannson who was only 14 when she made this film. You really feel her mental and physical pain struggling with teenage angst, while fighting a new battle against mental and physical angst. Powerful performance for someone so young.Cut to Montana, where Robert Redford delivers a spectacular performance as Tom Booker, horse whisperer whose special gift with horses is sought out by Annie. Or is Annie seeking more? You decide. In some ways, this reminds me of Crocodile Dundee in reverse, where Annie goes to the wilds of Montana seeking help with a suffering Pilgrim whom everyone wanted to put down, but maybe she also seeks help with healing her daughter, and even deeper, perhaps she seeks help with her own life choices. Redford skillfully directs, produces, and acts in this flick, and no one has ever done it better. He slowly reveals small bits of his life to Annie, and other layers get peeled back like an onion, with the same sad effect. Yet, he seems to be totally at peace with where he is, and Annie starts to seek that peace.Kristen S. Thomas is superb, but sometimes a bit unbelievably nervous. She has trouble adjusting from the New York minute lifestyle to the slow-down-pardner lifestyle of Montana. Sam Neill plays his typical role of a quiet, fatherly type who knows something is going on, and knows there's not much he can do except help pick up the pieces wherever they may fall. Excellent supporting roles add flavor as needed from Tom's family, in the form of young kids, his brother, and sister-in-law.You may laugh a little, but you will certainly have your heart strings pulled in multiple directions in this complex, moving film. The dance scene choreography between Annie and Tom is electric, stunning, and moving in its simple complexity of subtleties. I don't think I've seen a better dance scene ever.My only critique is that, at almost 3 hours, the film gets a little long. There were many scenes of running the cows in, and all involved with that, and other farm activities that really, after one or two, you get the point. There's no electronics here, so people do other things. I think 20 to 30 minutes could have been shaved off to bring this closer to 2 ½ hours.Excellent plot, terrific acting, breathtaking cinematography, fine editing, and skillfully detailed directing. This is a film you will remember for a long time. Do yourself a favor and watch The Horse Whisperer. Enjoy.