Shannon's Rainbow

Shannon Greene (Julianne Michelle) loses her father and she goes into a tailspin. She thought she was an orphan because she was told her mother was dead. Then she's told that her father lied to both her and her mother telling them both that other was dead. This premise seems problematic to me. Was there a funeral? Wouldn't the mother find it suspicious? I guess the unspoken understanding is that the mother didn't really want the baby.

The mother Christine (Claire Forlani) is now a successful doctor and her boyfriend Eric (Jason Gedrick) has horses for harness racing. Shannon is full of anger, but she start to open up as she takes care of one of the horses. Then one day after a race, evil horse owner Mitchell Prescott (Eric Roberts) bought out the horse. Once again, Shannon's loved one is ripped from her.

Julianne Michelle seems a bit too old to play the teen. But she does have one great scene where she breaks down after losing the horse. Of course they were able to buy the horse back, but only after Mitchell Prescott had almost killed it. The movie is supposed to be inspirational but the movie kinda missed the point. The heart of the story must be the mother-daughter reconciliation, not the love between a girl and her horse.

While the acting was not Oscar winning, it was competent. It was nice to see Louis Gossett Jr. back in movies though to think this was Charles Durning's last movie makes one wince. Make no mistake, the movie is predictable. For those who love racing, they will like the movie provided they can deal with the artistic changes to conform to time constraints. The race scenes were very good.

My problem comes with some of the editorial decisions. I winced at a couple of scenes which may be considered rough for those sensitive to animal rights and children. The movie didn't fully develop some of the back stories of the trainers.

The movie is promoted as being family friendly. I would suggest Amazing Racer is not a movie for those under ten or sensitive to animal abuse (simulated).

A movie to rent, not to own.

I enjoyed this movie based on a true story lived by the writer John Mowod.

After the death of her father Shannon discovers that her mother is still living: a great shock for her: mother and daughter meet together for the first time in Florida and Christine proposes Shannon to spend her holiday with her in Pennsylvania. Shannon doesn't feel well in this new world and repeats that she hate horses. But when she enters into the stable she sees a young filly and feels empathy for the filly. Eric, the campanion of Christine offers her to work in the office and to take care for some horses. Little by little Shannon will pratice harness racing. This will help her to improve her self-esteem and then to strengthen her relationship with her mother.

Very good performances of Julianne Michelle, Caire Forlani, Jason Gedrick, Stephen Colletti ,Eric Roberts and Louis Gossett Jr.

The only reason I watched was because of the harness racing element. The writers obviously didn't do a very thorough job on that research because a 16 year old with NO experience would never have been able to obtain a pari-mutuel drivers license in the time frame represented.

The emotional relationship with the mother and daughter could occur and the involvement of horses helps heal a lot of wounds. The story just throws in too many undeveloped characters and impossible horse training scenarios that are not reality.

Clean language and gorgeous horses and racing shots would make it suitable entertainment for kids. Purist racing fans are going to hate it.