Secretariat (2010)

Secretariat is a Disney film about a horse, which means it is a Disney film about perseverance, family, and the quiet dignity of a woman in a cardigan who refuses to be condescended to by men in hats. Diane Lane plays Penny Chenery, a Denver housewife who takes over her ailing father's Virginia stable and out-negotiates the Thoroughbred establishment. The picture treats her authority as a mild scandal and a steady triumph. The sexism she meets is genuine, and it is overcome. At no point are we asked to sit with the discomfort for long. This is the traditional mode, and it is executed with competence.

The film's cultural awareness is of a gentle, mid-century vintage. Nelsan Ellis appears as Eddie Sweat, the real groom, and the role is warm and largely silent, an inclusion that never hardens into an argument. The historical record takes its lumps, since Riva Ridge is erased and the Wood Memorial is rearranged for dramatic convenience, though the alterations serve sentiment instead of ideology. The speeches about believing in yourself arrive on schedule, and they concern horses and daughters, not the republic. Nothing here is designed to instruct us on how to live in the present.

What remains is a sturdy, old-fashioned entertainment that knows exactly what it is. It flatters its audience without challenging it. The feminist reading is available to anyone who wants it, and the film is happy to let them have it, provided nobody has to argue about anything afterward. A pleasant vintage. Light on the palate. Pairs well with a Sunday afternoon and a nap.