Seabiscuit

By EWAN McDONALD

(Herald rating: * * *)

Seabiscuit is the type of movie that Hollywood used to make so well, the plucky individual fighting and beating the odds, living the American dream, and — gosh! — always loosely based on reality.

Taken from the best-seller by Laura Hillenbrand, director Gary Ross' version cobbles together several unlikely characters to tell one of the good-luck stories of sport. There is a half-blind jockey, Red Pollard (Tobey Maguire), who was abandoned by his parents as a boy. The owner, Charles Howard (Jeff Bridges), has lost a child and a marriage. The trainer, Tom Smith (Chris Cooper), is down and out and trying to pick himself up again.

The three men and one horse — a little, ugly, bow-legged bugger named Seabiscuit — will find their destiny together, in a historic race against the thoroughbred champion, War Admiral. America loves them, though by this stage the average viewer may be tossing up whether "cornball" or "hayseed" is the appropriate description for this terminally feelgood movie.

On the DVD, Steven Soderbergh interviews Ross for the director's commentary; the pair compare their experiences in making movies to the Hollywood formula. The making of ... feature starts slowly but has interesting footage of the director's use of 10 horses to play Seabiscuit; and there's film of the real 1938 race between Seabiscuit and War Admiral.

DVD, video rental April 7