The Horse Whisperer 168mins PG Director Robert Redford YOU'LL feel like you've been in the saddle for a day when the final credits role at the end of Robert Redford's very long adaptation of Nicholas Evan's best-selling novel.

It is a film children will enjoy, but they will have to be very keen on horses to sit still all the way through. I shuffled and creaked in my seat after about an hour-and-a-half earning some derisory 'Shh's from my fellow reviewers.

That's not to say The Horse Whisperer isn't any good. Although it could have been shorter, it will engage you from beginning to end. It is a lesson in story telling. Take an interesting subject -- a good-looking loner who tames horses in a mysterious way - and then tack a good, old-fashioned love story on to it because we don't want people to have to think too much, do we?

Grace MacLean (Scarlett Johansson) is a 14-year-old left emotionally and physically scarred after being involved in an horrific riding accident. Her best friend is killed and her horse, Pilgrim, is left in a similar state to Grace. Her mother Annie (Kristin Scott Thomas) realises her daughter will not get better unless the horse does too and sets out to find the Horse Whisperer, a man who the magazine she edits claims can work miracles with our equine friends.

She heads off with her daughter to the Wild West, leaving her workaholic husband (Sam Neill) behind in New York. When she arrives there she meets Whisperer Tom Booker and is more pleased than she lets on that he is the spit of Robert Redford. What is she to do, stuck in the wilderness without her husband, and with only some rugged, incredibly good-looking bloke for company? Will he melt the icy city girl?

Of course, there is a rather dubious parallel drawn up between the taming of Pilgrim and the winning of Annie's heart. Women are like horses, it seems to be saying. Win their trust, treat them a bit rough, and they will not be able to resist the whims and fancies of a good ol' American boy. But that is me being very cynical.

In all, The Horse Whisperer is a beautifully shot film. Redford is head and shoulders above his compadre Clint Eastwood in the 60-something legend-turned-director stakes, although, as producer, he has allowed himself to ramble. A shorter, tighter film would have been preferable.

He does what is required of him as Booker, although he fails to stop some scenes coming across like an advert for Marlborough cigarettes. He also manages to get the best out of his cast. Thomas's cold, hard, editor mother chills the screen the moment she walks on to it. She is unapproachable and it is a testament to the actress that the audience can warm to her by the end. The writing in of her English roots rubs a little, but let it go.

Johansson is wonderful as Grace. It is a demanding role for one so young and she rises admirably to it. Neill, too, does well as the cuckold to make the audience feel both sorry for him, as his wife drifts away, and that the arrogant snob deserves everything he gets. Jeremy Austin

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