Flicka – Freiheit. Freundschaft. Abenteuer. (2006)

Flicka – Freiheit. Freundschaft. Abenteuer.: Directed by Michael Mayer. With Tim McGraw, Maria Bello, Alison Lohman, Ryan Kwanten. Young Katy claims a wild horse as her own — an effort to prove to her father that she is capable of taking over the family horse ranch one day.

“This story in its original incarnation had some appeal. Coming of age, proving oneu0026#39;s self, contact with nature — which in the original story was clearly conflated with confronting wild adolescent hormones. This was also the case of the u0026quot;girlu0026#39;su0026quot; version u0026quot;National Velvetu0026quot; filmed immediately after the first, 1943, film of u0026quot;My Friend Flicka.u0026quot;u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eBoth of those new-sex-as-wild-horse stories were sappy and ordinary on the surface, but solid enough to last, to (almost) become a classics. Now see what has happened here: this fairly simple natural form has been beset upon by wildcats who have shredded it, turning it into the opposite of what it wants to be.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eIn the original form, the parents are simply dim but good. Everyone in the story is baffled by puberty, and only differ on how to handle it. In this disemboweled version, the girl is simply wild. She was wild before, during and presumably after we see her. Her dumbfounded parents only know how to fight, not to counsel. In the original, at the end is a harmony, a merging of child and beast where the beast is tamed and controllable and the child now empowered.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eIn this mortally wounded carcass, the girl wants to remain wild. We know she will be promiscuous, live unhappily (probably creating some new unhappy kids) and die. We know she will be sick or wounded but defiant in every event in her life. We know her parents will comply eventually to every request and wonder why they should be so cursed.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eWhat a strange thing to celebrate harmful obstinacy. I suppose it is one legacy of how we sell presidents in the US.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eAnd the cinematography. I found it ordinary in every respect.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eTedu0026#39;s Evaluation — 1 of 3: You can find something better to do with this part of your life.”