THE HORSE WHISPERER (1998) C widescreen 168m dir: Robert Redford

w/Robert Redford, Kristin Scott Thomas, Sam Neill, Dianne Wiest, Scarlett Johansson, Chris Cooper

From Variety's contemporary review of the film: "Robert Redford has made an exquisitely crafted, morally and thematically mature picture out of Nicholas Evans's [bestselling] schematic melodrama about a modern cowboy who brings about the physical and spiritual regeneration of a teenage girl and her horse after they suffer crippling injuries. However, an elimination of the book's sexual element, while artistically justifiable, may perplex and frustrate the novel's fans.

"Directing himself for the first time, Redford has lavished his usual meticulous care on popular material that comes alive on screen in ways that it never could on the page, due to the indelible impressions made by the thesps, horses and spectacular Montana settings.

"In the throes of dealing with her daughter Grace's (Scarlett Johansson) calamity, high-powered New York magazine editor Annie MacLean (Kristin Scott Thomas) somehow decides not to have the horse, Pilgrim, put down. Vaguely intuiting that her daughter's recovery might be tied to that of Pilgrim's, Annie learns of a man who reputedly has a special gift with horses. She packs Grace in the car and Pilgrim in a trailer and heads for Montana, where the healer man, Tom Booker (Redford) lives.

"From the moment he makes his long-delayed entrance, it is apparent that Redford has no intention of playing into clichéd notions of a dirt-kicking, aw-shucksing, man-of-few-words cowboy. He's a thoughtful, thoroughly modern figure who has had to make compromises and concessions.

"It's almost unique in modern films for the central couple in a romance not to bed down at least once; when Annie plaintively asks, 'Tom, can we have one last ride?' the hero here takes her and literally saddles up a horse.

"Redford steps into the role as into a pair of well-worn boots. Scott Thomas is brittle, alert and increasingly radiant as the woman who slowly opens to Tom's love and wisdom."