Tempo de Mudanças

I don't claim to be an authority on horses, but what little I do know kind of downplays any enthusiasm for this film.

Adolescent Sarah Bolen is sent to live in rural Michigan with her father Kevin Sorbo for the summer and she's not seen much of him over the years so she's disappointed. Her mother keeps her in a lifestyle that's extravagant for them, she has a show horse that she's training for competition. Sorbo's farm out there might be a good training ground for her and the horse.

But she develops an enthusiasm for rodeo when she arrives no doubt fueled by a young rodeo cowboy Derek Brandon who works for Sorbo. I won't say any more.

But for the life of me I can't see how a horse bred for shows could be turned into a horse used for barrel racing in a rodeo. Just not done and I think the film will be justly criticized for it. Like trying to train a thoroughbred race horse all of a sudden into a horse for harness racing. The smartest of horses, Mr. Ed in fact just wouldn't take to it though Mr. Ed could articulate why from his point of view.

Nice family film otherwise, but the horse changing his training is too big to overlook.

This movie had a very bad story line with even worse acting. I was terribly bored and annoyed with the sassy teenagers but the inaccurate horsemanship and knowledge entertained me enough to watch about 45 minutes of it. Absolutely terrible acting and story line, and not good for kids because the message was that's it's ok to be a spoiled brat and sass your parents and other people for no reason.

In New England, the spoiled Priscilla (Sophie Bolen) loves horse riding and lives with her mother Abigail (Janet Caine). When Abigail decides to travel with her wealthy boyfriend, he gives the US$ 75,000 horse Lassie to Priscilla and she sends her daughter and Lassie to stay with her estranged father Duke Williams (Kevin Sorbo) in his ranch in Michigan. The snobbish Priscilla does not treat her father well, but soon she befriends his friend Laura Mae (Sherryl Despres) and his employee Sage (Derek Brandon). When they go to a rodeo, Priscilla decides to train to dispute barrel racing and Sage teaches her. Meanwhile, the wealthy farmer Carl Davenport (Mark Boyd) wants to buy Duke's land and his reckless son harasses Priscilla that is improving in the rodeo competition. When Abigail arrives in the ranch, Duke and Priscilla learn that her boyfriend was a con-artist and she does not have money to pay the price of Lassie, and will have to resell the horse. Priscilla vanishes and Duke has to take an attitude.

"Rodeo Girl" is a good family entertainment film, with the story of a spoiled girl that loves horse riding and has to stay with her estranged father that she has never met before. Priscilla's character is a typical 14-year-old unpleasant spoiled teenager, and the story should have included something that real hurts to change her behavior and attitude. The scene where the teenager drugs the horse should have had consequences for him. But anyway, the story is light and nice to see with the family. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Tempo de Mudanças" ("Time of Changing")

As far as fantasy horse flicks for girls go, there are plenty of films to choose from. Some are abismally bad, others had potential and lost it. But to find a clean film for a young audience set to a backdrop of horses, the best options are in short supply, and this one is on the line for watchable.

First some of the bad: The cinematography, from a technical standpoint, was sorely lacking. Some scenes suffered from poor lighting, others had blown out highlight or had contrast and colour settings that distracted from the story - which was so so. But there are some good things.

In spite of these challenges, Kevin Sorbo deserves recognition for delivering a good performance. There are plenty of shots of competition riding in rodeo, and this also plays to the audience intended.

There are better films, of course, and more accurate films for those educated in equine practices, but if you've seen those big blockbusters, this is a watchable option for an evening with young daughters.

I have to sort of disagree with one of the reviews that a horse can't "change it's training". There have been many that changed their careers. However, I don't think this horse would be one of those. There is just too much information and access to real barrel racers that could have made the show much more realistic. First of all, a barrel race is just that - a race - not a trot and lope around the barrels! While they did try to get a lot of the lingo correct, they could have done better. There was just so much potential with this show, but it fell way short. Still a good, clean family film that to the non horseman or non barrel racer would be quite entertaining.