FLICKA

REVIEWED BY RISSI C.

Our rating: 4 out of 5

Because of: disrespectful behavior, mild language

Rated:

In fall of 2005, I saw one of the best family films ever. The movie was Dreamer. When the trailers came out for Flicka I was excited thinking this would be similar. When my cousin and I went to see this last fall, we were both disappointed in some of the themes portrayed.

For sixteen-year-old Katy McLaughlin (Alison Lohman) her daily thoughts and dreams are of horses and her family’s ranch, instead of getting good grades at boarding school. Her father Rob (Tim McGraw) owns a horse ranch in Montana and Katy is anxious to leave for the summer. Once school is out, Katy becomes all the more anxious to see her family again and spend her days at the ranch she loves. At home, she finds her disagreements with her father are many. Katy decides to prove that she’s capable of someday taking over and running the ranch. While out riding, Katy comes across a wild horse that she names Flicka. After catching her and bringing her home, Katy slowly begins to earn her trust and train her to be ridden, believing this will prove her worth as a future ranch owner.

Things become more strained between father and daughter when her parents receive a fax from Katy’s school, telling them about their daughter’s grades. Soon after, Katy learns that her father is thinking about selling the ranch. Hurt and upset Katy lashes out at him for even thinking of selling. Her mother Nell (Maria Bello) tries to keep peace between the headstrong father and daughter. What follows is a story about father and daughter trying to come to terms with each other’s beliefs and dreams. The acting was good all around. Alison Lohman is much older than a sixteen-year-old and normally when they cast someone much older than the character they’re playing it can ruin the casting for me. I was surprised though that she not only played the part well, she also didn’t look as old as I thought she would. They didn’t play up her make-up very much and her hair was normally just left down, which I felt really added to Alison looking more the part. Maria Bello and Tim McGraw were great in their roles.

The most disturbing content in this movie that my family and I all agreed on was the fact that Katy is disrespectful to her father on more then one occasion. She has several arguments with him concerning Flicka, but the most disturbing scene comes when she tells her father she hates him and he’s not her father anymore. I thought that was unnecessary; she had no reason to tell her father that she hated him over a horse. More than once, Katy defies him and rides Flicka without his permission. Another topic that was disappointing was Katy’s school paper on “how the west was won” in which she says all the tales and legends are lies; she believes horses were the true heroes and that we treated them cruelly until they finally disappeared. There is some mild language. Katy gets kicked in the back by Flicka; we later see the bruise on her back. Twice, she is thrown off. A young girl wears a bikini once, and there is one scene that shows two young characters kissing. 

It was enjoyable to see that Katy and her brother had a good relationship in the story. That is a rare thing to find today. There are two scenes that really stand out; they were so humorous you could almost forget some of the more unpleasant themes. One is of Katy getting her hair cut by her mom; the other has Katy and her brother swimming. This had a lot of potential. It’s a classic tale with well developed characters, but its theme of disrespect is disappointing. If you are a horse lover or are fans of any of the stars, you would probably enjoy this story. If you’ve seen Dreamer and are looking for a family film along the same lines, don’t expect this to be as good. I wouldn't recommend this for anyone under fourteen, for the simple fact that older children will be able to understand that it’s never right to act that way towards your parents.