Orphan Horse

Shelly (Alexa Nisenson) runs away from home and ends up at Ben Crowley's (John Voight) farm and she bonds with a horse she later names Orphan.

Just like every now and then we need a great big juicy cheeseburger, we also need to see a very nice story about a 12-year old girl and a horse. Yes, at times, this will get a little sappy, but we know that will happen and we are okay with it. We have our Kleenex boxes at the ready.

The real winner in here is the banter between Ben and Shelly as it is real, innocent and honest. This is a movie we never want to end mostly because we really like Ben and Shelly. I have never seen John Voight is a more comfortable role and I don't think he wanted this to end either. As for Miss Nisenson, she is 12 going on 30 and her character has had tragedy in her young Iife and her uttterances are full of honesty and truth. Ben has met his match and you may be able to see regrets in some of his reflections when Shelly causes some of his memories to surface.

Notables: Vail Bloom as Caroline, Ben's estranged daughter; Phillip Boyd as Sheriff Jake, who wants to marry Caroline; Eva LaRue as Marta Jenkins, Shelly's foster mother; Scott Summitt as Gerald Jenkins, Shelly's foster father.

This is a very good family movie and the dialogues are so good we don't want them to end. Now, do we want fries with that cheeseburger? Hmmm............... (9/10)

Violence: No. Sex: No. Nudity: No. Humor: Yes. Language: No. Rating: A

The two main characters, Jon Voight and Alexa Nisensen,play very well off each other and make you really like them. Voight's character is slightly reminiscent of Walter Matthau's in the movie Kotch. A superficially grouchy old guy who really cares a lot. One reviewer below seemed to dislike it because it was too cliched and full of tricks to tug at your emotions. He also complained that it had no subtitles. Subtitles?? It's in English, dude.

Yes, it may be "formulaic" in the tearjerker style, but after all, when you get down to it, don't most movies, or stories, follow some sort of type? And this one is very well done.

A well written story with the two main stars. Putting in a really great performance

Picked up a copy of the DVD for cheap at the store because it sounded like an interesting and wholesome movie. We were pleasantly surprised. Yes, some of it was predictable, but it was still pretty clever how the story played out and things were tied together. It was not "draggy" at all, and held our interest throughout. There were a couple of times where we actually cheered. But you should also have a tissue handy. The only real criticisms we had was that there were no subtitles (Mom is hard of hearing, and wears aids) and even when the volume was turned way up on her TV some of the dialogue was missed, even by me. But overall, it was a nice escape -- especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. Lately we've been doing takeout lunch and a new movie, and this one fit the bill nicely.

Very good direction and acting!!! We loved the cinematography and editing. Wonderful story!!!