Seabiscuit
Gary Ross
London Film Festival

Graham Barnfield

Based on Laura Hillenbrand's non-fiction bestseller, Seabiscuit tells the tale of the feisty little horse who became a celebrity in New Deal America and the crew of misfits who made this possible.

Grief-stricken Buick mogul Charles Howard (Jeff Bridges), half-blind jockey Red Pollard (Tobey Maguire) and tight-lipped horse-breaker Tom Smith (Chris Cooper) set out to take on the Eastern racing establishment. Indeed, part of the film's charm is its ability to take these embattled figures and make us care about them.

For those familiar with Hillebrand's book, this may set off alarm bells. The adaptation process, sent up by Cooper among others in last year's Charlie Kaufman-scripted Adaptation, has subtracted most of Howard's real life family, altered Pollard's life-threatening injuries and made assorted other changes.

Whilst making for a smoother narrative, the transformation of the facts is symptomatic of a wider process of manipulation that characterises this film. Thus the PBS-style voiceover and the heavy-handed soundtrack - 'blub now please' - all give this gorgeous-looking movie a hectoring undertone.