Flicka

"Flicka" (2006) bridges several sub-genres, unfortunately it is one of the weakest examples of each. It's a horse movie (the original is better, as are "National Velvet", The Horse Whisperer" and for that matter most episodes of "The Saddle Club" and "Spin & Marty"). It's a "wild mustangs as a metaphor for the changing West" movie ("The Misfits" and "Billy Jack" do it better). It's an overwrought coming of age melodrama (countless other films do this better as well as most of the stuff you find playing on Lifetime).

It's also an Alison Lohman film and in all fairness contains one of her best performances. Lohman is always excellent and in "Flicka" she is given a lot to work with and handles it all quite well. However, the scripting and editing assembly work are so weak that her strong performance (and nice supporting work by Maria Bello and Ryan Kwanten) cannot turn this thing into a high quality film. You might notice that neither the two screenwriters nor the director have been involved in any feature productions since the release of the film.

"Flicka" was a major release (over 2900 theaters in the U.S.) and turned a profit at the box office. I credit shrewd packaging by the film's producers as they focused from inception on insuring that the project would be bankable. They incorporated elements that pre-sold the film beyond its target audience of pre-teen girls. Tim McGraw was cast to bring in his large fan base, Kwanten was counted on to draw a fair number of teenage girls into the multi- plex, and there were so few live action family films in 2006 that it was able to tap into an under-supplied market.

As for Mary O'Hara's beloved children's book (My Friend Flicka-previously adapted into two feature films and a television show, is credited), it would be more accurate to say "inspired by" rather than "adapted from". The original's ten-year-old hero has been changed to a 16-year-old heroine named Katy McLaughlin (Lohman).

I normally rant a bit when an older actress is cast as a teenager but Lohman is the Mary Pickford of her day and with her cute face and freckles still looks physically believable playing a teen. Her new look for the film, long curly hair-dyed dark, makes her look a lot like Kari Russell (insert "very Irish" here). In this remake it's totally Katy's story (in the original the parents had a more central role) and is told from her point-of-view. She even does a short voice-over commentary to begin and close the film. Normally this POV stuff leads to viewer identification and connection, but the scripting and directing works against Lohman and you stay distanced from her character.

Katy is mega-headstrong, uncomfortable and bored at her boarding school but at one with the wilds of her family's horse ranch in Wyoming. Her father is grooming Katy's older brother Howard to eventually take over the ranch, clueless about Howard's desire to escape and about Katy's affinity for the place. She is the chip-off-the-old-block, not her brother.

The title character is a two-year old black mustang mare that is a source of conflict between Katy and her father for most of the film. While the movie looks pretty the thin plot, the poor sequencing, and absence of "genuine" emotion" doesn't add up to a particularly satisfying viewing experience.

Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.

During the rodeo the thing that bugs me the most is the barrel racing. It's like the movie is trying to make fun of the sport. If they're going to film a barrel race, they need to have someone who knows what they're doing, on a horse that knows what it's doing. In the movie they have a horse that has no idea what its doing with an inexperienced rider. Also, the chute dogging sucked. I know plenty of kids who are only in junior rodeo who can do so much better than what was shown in this movie.

Now granted, the rest of the movie was a great recreation, but I still like the original better. They changed the movie here and there, all around it was great. I just wish that they had spent a little bit of money just to get people to come in for the rodeo who have experience in that area. I mean come on, the focus of the movie is about horses. The least they could do is not disrespect people who rodeo for a living.

So many times when writers "update" a movie, they destroy it by changing the heartwarming plot into something colder and more distant. Flicka remains true to the book, even if they made Flicka's owner a girt instead of a boy. Allison Lohman, really deserves credit as the teenage girl with spirit who find Flicka, a similarly spirited mustang. Her mother is Maria Bello (Doctor on ER, owner of Coyote Ugly) and her father is a beardless Tim McGraw (that took a while to get use to). Tim does a surprisingly good job as "Dad," and although its not perfect, he doesn't detract from the movie.

Expect lots of tears - bring lots of tissue.

Mary O'Hara's novel "My Friend Flicka" is the basis for this wonderful family oriented movie. Directed by Michael Mayer, a man whose work we had admired before, offers a positive view of a Wyoming family that is struggling to make a living out the ranch where they raise horses and the changes that are happening around them.

At the center of the story is Katy McLaughlin, a young woman who is happier being in the family ranch than at the boarding school, where she seems to be out of place. When Katy goes back home after not completing a key exam, she begins to feel like a human being. All the great outdoors are at her finger tips. The horses she loves are also part of her life.

A fearless rider, Katy is surprised one day by a mountain lion who comes near her. A mustang that appears out of nowhere comes to her rescue, attracting Katy's attention. A bond will develop between the young woman and the horse that will prove it to be a mutual love and respect they feel about one another. She names the horse Flicka and becomes her champion when her father feels a mustang doesn't belong in the ranch because what it will do to the other pure bred horses. In the end, the father, as well as the family realize how deep Katy cares for Flicka and the way the horse responds to her.

Alison Lohman, who is seen as Flicka, is an actress that seems a natural no matter what role she is asked to play. Tim McGraw does justice to the father, and lovely Maria Bello is perfect as the mother.

The beautiful cinematography by J. Michael Muro does wonders to create the right atmosphere in which the action is presented. The same can be said for the musical score of Aaron Zigman, which is tuneful and fits well in the picture. There is no doubt Michael Mayer will continue to surprise us in his future projects.

Highly recommended for all families.

This story in its original incarnation had some appeal. Coming of age, proving one's self, contact with nature — which in the original story was clearly conflated with confronting wild adolescent hormones. This was also the case of the "girl's" version "National Velvet" filmed immediately after the first, 1943, film of "My Friend Flicka."

Both of those new-sex-as-wild-horse stories were sappy and ordinary on the surface, but solid enough to last, to (almost) become a classics. Now see what has happened here: this fairly simple natural form has been beset upon by wildcats who have shredded it, turning it into the opposite of what it wants to be.

In the original form, the parents are simply dim but good. Everyone in the story is baffled by puberty, and only differ on how to handle it. In this disemboweled version, the girl is simply wild. She was wild before, during and presumably after we see her. Her dumbfounded parents only know how to fight, not to counsel. In the original, at the end is a harmony, a merging of child and beast where the beast is tamed and controllable and the child now empowered.

In this mortally wounded carcass, the girl wants to remain wild. We know she will be promiscuous, live unhappily (probably creating some new unhappy kids) and die. We know she will be sick or wounded but defiant in every event in her life. We know her parents will comply eventually to every request and wonder why they should be so cursed.

What a strange thing to celebrate harmful obstinacy. I suppose it is one legacy of how we sell presidents in the US.

And the cinematography. I found it ordinary in every respect.

Ted's Evaluation -- 1 of 3: You can find something better to do with this part of your life.