Useless

Relatively speaking, the horse, Lucky, is acting quite well all along. The script, and the direction, might not have helped the other creatures, especially the ones usually capable of speech. They may have been intimidated by the music though, that totally redefines the meaning of the word "cheesy" and might have been played directly on stage in an attempt to stimulate the actors. Still, I managed to go through, doing other benign little things on the side. No one has been hurt in the watching of this movie. Hence 4 stars.

90% cinematic shots with awfully depressing music. 10% terrible acting. The horses are nice tho.

Yes the pace is slow, but after a bit I became used to it. I'm from the east coast and we speak fast. But I worked at a company with operations all over the country and people out west speak more slowly by comparison and with a significantly reduced range of inflection. I've seen easterners who have been relocated to our western operations and after a couple of years, they end up speaking slowly too. That this film reflects that shouldn't be a deterrent to its enjoyment. Regional dialects are dying out in this country, which is a pity. Oh, and Brooke Wilson looks exponentially better on a horse than John Wayne ever did.

The reviews so far seem to be "love it or hate it," with little actual information. I thought it was fair-to-good, realizing that as an older adult I'm not the target audience, which would seem to be horse-loving teenage girls. The acting is mostly wooden with a few exceptions, one of those being Michael Christensen as the shy but kind, nerdy college student Kyle. The pacing is slow, and more explanation of what makes barrel racing a sport could have been briefly given, because the way it's shown there seems to be hardly anything to it. The cinematography is beautiful and the shots of the snow-covered mountains and and sunsets of Montana never get old. Probably not a movie I'll ever re-watch, but some of the scenery and rodeo shots will stay with me.

First, I want to say that I love the fact that the horse and rider scenes are authentic - no weird fake whinnying for dramatic effect. The riders can actually ride and all the tack and equipment looks appropriate.

That being said...the acting is BAAAAAAAD. The pacing is BAAAAAAD. The plot is kind of meh. The score is just boring. But the horses are beautiful and overall it's not a bad happy-sappy movie.