The Horse Whisperer (1998)

Featured Audience Ratings

• Jason O

  
  Lots of people don't like this movie, but I've always been a sucker for a tear jerker drama film, and this is one of them. Redford's always been both a great actor and director. This is the first movie I think of when I think of him as a director. Awesome story… More
  Lots of people don't like this movie, but I've always been a sucker for a tear jerker drama film, and this is one of them. Redford's always been both a great actor and director. This is the first movie I think of when I think of him as a director. Awesome story (it'd be even better if she'd stayed with Redford!) and perfect setting and scenery.

• Lady D

  
  A young Scarlett Johansson plays a good role in a story that has more depth to it that the title suggest. It does essentially lead to a love story, but the film is very long and the love story is not the main plot. With likable characters and stunning scenic views, The Horse… More
  A young Scarlett Johansson plays a good role in a story that has more depth to it that the title suggest. It does essentially lead to a love story, but the film is very long and the love story is not the main plot. With likable characters and stunning scenic views, The Horse Whisperers is a watchable lengthly, but not one, I would demand people to watch.

• Candy R

  
  A mother hires a horsewhisper to heal her daughter's horse and in doing so repairs the relationships in the family. Good cast, including a young Scarlett Johansson.

• Dean M

  
  This isn't a film, it's a symphony: a magnificent project that perfectly suits Robert Redford's taste, style, and abilities. The subsequent romantic overtures between these two adults from different worlds play out against the Herculean task of helping the tormented… More
  This isn't a film, it's a symphony: a magnificent project that perfectly suits Robert Redford's taste, style, and abilities. The subsequent romantic overtures between these two adults from different worlds play out against the Herculean task of helping the tormented girl and her terrified animal. Redford once again proves himself the most generous of directors; all the best scenes and lines go to his costars.

• Manu G

  
  I like this movie very much. Great Cinematography and great acting by everone. The mother of a severely traumatized daughter enlists the aid of a unique horse trainer to help the girl's equally injured horse.

• Cameron J

  
  Somewhere, Robert Redford is probably whispering to himself, because he pretty much looks like a horse now. Many, remember when he used to be handsome and I didn't keep judging men by their looks? I certainly can't pull my usual "Scarlett Johansson's hot"… More
  Somewhere, Robert Redford is probably whispering to himself, because he pretty much looks like a horse now. Many, remember when he used to be handsome and I didn't keep judging men by their looks? I certainly can't pull my usual "Scarlett Johansson's hot" exclamation to refill my man meter, because she was about 13 when she did this film, so that would be creepy, and plus, while she was kind of cute, you couldn't tell that she was going to look all that phenomenal when you look at this film. Well little girls, let that be a lesson that even if you don't look all that terribly pretty now, you could grow into one of the most attractive women on Earth... and I strongly emphasize the "could". Sorry to go shallow, gals, but I'm not going to lie to y'all; the chances of that happening are about as good as some adapting an Eric Roth script and not making it boring. Well, I guess that means that you should be hanging out with one of the three great directors that didn't make a terribly slow Eric Roth film, because it appears to have worked for the now lovely Miss Johansson. Yes, boys and girls the guy who was in "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid", "All the President's Men", "Out of Africa"....... *snort* a-a-and "The Natural" (Sorry, I fell asleep there for a second) actually cracked the code to making a not-that-dull Eric Roth script, yet only rides that stallion for only so long before it goes back to limping. Roth's screenplays are often intended to be slow, but rarely dull, yet the type of meditation that he pumps into his work is so hard to do that, more often than not, the execution defaults to dry, and Redford manages to impressively work past the dryness, but only for so long. The film hits its share of rather dull spots, which is to be expected, considering that the storytelling is still so very slow in its pacing, and while that can work to great effect in some cases, typically, it only damages the film, and this film is no exception to that rule. With the pacing being so ridiculously slow, with few, if any jumping points, countless sequences and segments that run their coarse feel as though they're going on forever. I'm not making some kind of exaggerated joke when I say that Redford is introduced around 25 minutes in, yet it genuinely feels like we're nearing the 50 minute mark, and it's testaments to the pacing like that that really leave the film to lose plenty of steam, and while it's not like the later-to-be-done other Eric Roth-written film, "Munich", which is glacial in pacing and bone dry (Yet still pretty good; Sorry, but I'm a sucker for dramas, even if they do feature Eric Bana, who might be one of the worst actors alive), there's no getting around the fact that this is another Eric Roth screenplay that is not quite used to its full potential. However, as far as these spotty executions go, this is most certainly one of your better ones. Sure, it's not even mildly as good as one of the best Roth-written films, "Forrest Gump" or one of the best films... of all time, "Benjamin Button", yet what Redford lacks in comfortable pacing, he makes up for in sharp execution in almost every other regard of the film. While the opening is as slowly-paced as the rest of the film, I've got to give it up to Redford for nailing things right out of the gate, because this film wastes no time in presenting a challenge as part of the development segment: Pulling off something as potentially manipulative as one horse and teenaged girl getting smashed to death against a truck, while the other horse is left bloodied, busted and traumatised, with bones sticking out and flesh falling off its face, and the other teenaged girl is having to have half of one of her legs amputated. Just the fact that the leg in question will never get the chance to mature into the voluptuous puppy that adult Scarlett Johansson is sporting is tragic enough, yet Redford, against all odds, nails that scene effortlessly, portraying it with gritty realism and audacity, while making it still very disturbing, as well as emotional, without getting manipulative, and just like that, you're hooked. After that, the film goes up and down and quality, yet is never not compelling, keeping you engaged through all of the major slow-downs, as well as the occasional dull spot, partially because Eric Roth's... oh, and Richard LaGravenese's (Sorry buddy, but you're working with Eric Roth, so good luck getting noticed) screenplay, while not glowing, is still fairly tight, and while the execution is looser than the brain of those two guys that fought Max Baer (Look it up, it's pretty depressing; Poor Jethro's dad) in atmosphere, Redford manages to translate enough of the intrigue and sparkling charm within the duo's script for you to find yourself attached. If no other Robert behind the camera attracts your attention, then it's Robert Richardson, who might be one of the greatest cinematographers to ever pick up a camera, and sure enough, while this film doesn't bounce off the screen as much as Richardson's usual projects, the film is beautifully saturated in a fashion that's truly awe-inspiring, though not overbearing in its being so constant. Still, even if the lighting of the cinematography was too much (All might Robert Richardson, forgive me for my blasphemy), you would still find yourself pulled down to the film's level of substance, placed there not only by Redford's offscreen skill, but onscreen charisma, yet what really delivers on the humanity are the performances by the true centers of this story: Kristin Scott Thomas and then-up-and-coming Scarlett Johansson. It's not brought up very often, because now, she's become such an absolute bombshell and admittedly bombed in "The Spirit", but when you step back, Scarlett Johansson is not simply the last classic-style starlette, but a fine example of the modern, wildly talented actress, even when she was just 13, when she gave a very down-to-earth and charming, yet at times heartbreakingly emotional performance that was matched only by Kristin Scott Thomas' very believable and emotional portrayal of a woman seeking some form of relief in a life all but destroyed by tragedy. Watching these two actresses deliver such moving performances with such skill has got to be one of the most compelling aspects of this flawed, yet thoroughly engaging film, which is saying quite a bit. At the end of this slow ride (Take it easy! Sorry, but I just had to), the film isn't quite as impacting as it should be, being held back by a glacial pacing that sometimes drags the film into dullness, yet what triumphs in the end is Robert Redford's ability to extract consistent compellingness, charm and intrigue from Eric Roth's and Richard LaGravenese's gripping script, and with that appeal being supplemented by Robert Richardson's beautiful cinematography, as well as a pair of particularly remarkable performances by Kristin Scott Thomas and Scarlett Johansson, "The Horse Whisperer" is left a generally entertaining and thoroughly charming heartwarming that's ultimately worth the long-feeling sit. 3/5 - Good

• Dannielle A

  
  I didn't care for this movie. It was REALLY long and kind of boring. It made me very uncomfortable watching the wife flirt with another man and even fall in love with him. I didn't really understand the point of this movie. I guess the point was... go back to your husband.

• ashley h

  
  A great story,beautiful scenery.A little too slow,but its part of the evolution of the story not just between the healing of the girl and the horse,but also the impending relationship that never happens betweem Rob Redford & kristin thomas

• Lea L

  
  Great movie..

• Sarah B

  
  Robert Redford is a brilliant director, shame about the story; too slight to be engaging, the character development is zilch despite the subject matter and I wanted to see more behind the scenes of the ranch. Frustrating.

• Lee K

  
  Half decent movie featuring the ancient redford, the horse scene at the beginning was a little too graphic for an animal lover to take but all the same was enjoyable.

• Leo L

  
  Great!

• Anthony V

  
  A cure for insomnia.

Read all 13 featured audience ratings