For the first time in his career, Robert Redford has decided to direct and star in the same movie, with mixed results on both sides of the camera. Redford plays the title character, a man who tries to a help a family and their horse come to terms with a traumatic event. Kristin Scott Thomas, and Sam Neill play the parents and newcomer Scarlett Johanssen is their emotionally disturbed child. Thomas, fresh from her nominated turn in The English Patient, is nothing special here. Johanssen, however, is outstanding in her first major role. Redford also gets terrific performances out of his supporting cast including; Chris Cooper, Diane Wiest, and Sam Neill. He also gives himself some great moments, but not enough to fully recommend.

The Horse Whisperer's main attribute is that it's always beautiful to look at. Although Redford does tend to go overboard with his aerial shots of cars driving down long winding roads through the Montana countryside. For the most part, however, the cinematography is stunning. Especially the sequences that deal with the horses. Thomas Newman's beautiful score is also quite noteworthy.

The Horse Whisperer's main problem is it's running time of nearly 3 hours. This film is not as big as it wants to be. The same story could have been told more effectively in under 2 hours. Redford spends a lot of time letting scenes linger far too long. I was also quite disappointed by the romance aspect of the film. I didn't feel that there were enough sparks between Redford and Thomas. A friend of mine joked that they should have called this film The Horses of Madison County. We were both in agreement that The Bridges Of Madison County was a much better love story.

The Horse Whisperer wasn't a bad film. It's certainly better than a lot of the other junk that's playing right now. I was just hoping for the masterpiece that I know Robert Redford can deliver.