O.K. you can see the plot twists coming a mile way but the film ends up being a pleasant experience and a notch better than the usual 'girl and her horse movie' mainly because of the superior production. There is some beautiful Nova Scotia scenery and many shots of galloping horses to delight the horse lovers.
The acting is generally good although Gabriel Byrne's mind seems elsewhere and he tends to mumble his lines and that, with his Irish accent makes him difficult to understand sometimes. The two young girls playing his daughters however bear the brunt of the film and they are both excellent and pretty. There is sentiment in the movie but it never gets maudlin. The scene where the girls reminisce about their dead mother is genuinely moving.
The lengthy final endurance horse race is well done and the suspense is maintained until the end as the bad guys (more jerks than anything else)try their skullduggery to stop Virginia from race. The kids will love it when one of them gets his comeuppance in that old cliche - the horse trough.
There in nothing scary for the kids and when the film is over you are left with a nice warm feeling, which is the way this type of film should leave you.
