Ma bonne étoile

For people who like horses , this movie is a must .

"My lucky star" has all the tricks of the trade of old-fashioned melodramas :stables where they trained horses on decay , where the only customer is the bailiff ;a young girl who swore her late mom she would carry it on and that everything would be all right (a wonderful use of the pre-war song "tout va très bien madame la marquise" , an improvement on the usual song in English which 's got nothing to do with the plot); the girl enters a world where "chicks must work as hard as guys "in the horse-training school ; she meets a nice young man ,Julien,with whom she quickly falls in love,but there's also a villain the smug banker's sonny -who beats the horses! and his wealthy dad is not better ,money-can-buy- everything style....

But money cannot buy a girl's love for her dear mare ,Marquise .Abetted by an embittered father (Christophe Lambert ,cast against type) and a strong grandad (the always reliable Claude Brasseur) , the girl will go from strength to strength .

There are plot holes, the races are not very suspenseful when you know who the winner will be ,but Fleur Lise Huet is touching as a determined jockey whose love for her mare is marvelous.

For people who like horses ,this is a must.