The Girl Who Came Late

Strongly in the rom-com tradition of two people whose initial dislike for each other eventually changes after a series of disasters and strange behaviour, this film at least has the likeable Miranda Otto at its centre, and the oddness of her horse-obsession adds an unusual twist. While English actor (ex-pop singer) Martin Kemp is acceptable at best, Gia Carides is great as Otto's best friend.

The film moves along at pace through the usual series of pratfalls and the girl gets the boy in the end, so it's a fairly amiable film. Otto started to get better-written roles after this, and went on to awards and Hollywood, but this is a good place to see her starting out.

This film has nothing to with reality, but it is a sort of Fairy Tail. But I enjoyed it, good playing by Miranda Otto and a light story. This is a film to relax after a hard day working, with your legs on the table and glass of beer in your hands. That's my opinion, if you don't believe me, see it yourself.

For some strange reason, this little known Australian movie has lately been shown on several occasions on cable TV here in Argentina. It stars a young, redhead Miranda Otto (a decade before playing Eowyn in Lord of the Rings) as a weird but lovely woman who is a struggling actress, works in a strip joint (but does not get naked herself) and has some sort of undefined telepathic affinity with horses. She ends up meeting an uptight and wealthy polo player who is the owner of a horse stable (former Spandau Ballet singer Martin Kemp) and after helping him taming his horses love soon develops between them. It's far from being a great movie, but it's eminently watchable and even upbeat.

I watched this film late one night because nothing else was on and it was fantastic, i now own the DVD. A young girl can talk to horses as a result of hiding with horses whenever her father erupted when she was a child. As a result at times of stress she becomes a horse only changing back when she has an apple. As she grows up she always keeps an apple with her just in case. She keeps bumping in to a man who owns a horse stud farm and tries hard not to ruin his life. One of the horses is unhappy and the young girl spends some time with it much to the annoyance of the owner of the farm. She is very clumsy and he becomes angry whenever he sees her. He kind of feels sorry for her so he arranges her a job, but it is not a nice job. He is furious when he finds out what the job was. She becomes really stressed and becomes a horse and she is all out of apples. He puts all his hatred and annoyance aside and treats her like a horse until he can get her back to the stud farm and give her an apple. It all works out well in the end. She tells the owner what is wrong with the horse and then the horse is happy. The owner is happy because of the girls skills all his horses have happy healthy foals and the girl is happy because she found love. Its a happy ending film and sometimes you just need a happy ending film to watch.

The bit where he treated her like a horse restored my faith in human nature. He put all his feeling aside and even though he had no idea what was wrong he reached out to help another human being. I know its only a film but that moment was just so touching.

A very watchable, though seemingly obscure Australian film. Worth the watch if you can get your hands on it.