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Flicka (2006)

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71 out of 95 people found the following comment useful :-
Truly Moving Picture, 8. Juli 2006

Author: tollini von United States

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

I saw this film on July 7th, 2006 in Indianapolis. I am one of the judges for the Heartland Film Festival's Truly Moving Picture Award. A Truly Moving Picture "…explores the human journey by artistically expressing hope and respect for the positive values of life." Heartland gave that award to this film.

Set in a stunningly beautiful ranch in Wyoming, Flicka is a story of a rebellious teenage girl and a naturally rebellious and wild, mustang horse.

The girl, Katie, is the only daughter in a long line of ranchers. She is a bad student, but it is because she is a dreamer and longs to be on the family horse ranch instead of at an exclusive Boarding School. Her father wants her to finish high school and go to college. She is constantly in a struggle with her father over her long summer break not only because of her lack of interest in academics, but also because she finds a mustang (she names Flicka) in the wild and wants to keep it.

She wants to break and ride the mustang, but her father insists that a mustang doesn't belong on a quarter horse ranch. And, they are going through tough economic times. The ranch of many thousands of acres is worth a fortune to land developers. No one wants to sell out, but they may be forced to. Katie has an older teenage brother who works the ranch because he feels it's his duty. He actually is the opposite of Katie. He wants to leave the ranch, go off to college, and experience the world.

It all sounds like a dysfunctional family. But it isn't. The father, mother, daughter, and son love each other deeply. As they struggle with their economic problems and coming-of-age problems, their love and fidelity to each other are the only things that have a chance to keep them together.

The cinematography and art direction are exceptional. You are actually there in Wyoming and can understand why people never want to leave the remote and beautiful West, and why they love their horses.

FYI – There is a Truly Moving Pictures web site where there is a listing of past Truly Moving Picture Award winners that are now either at the theater or available on video.

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25 out of 40 people found the following comment useful :-
Different but Good, 16. Oktober 2006

Author: autoprincess von United States

If you wanted it to be exactly like the book you are going to be disappointed. However the movie was awesome and I loved every bit of it. It was well done and the acting was great. I re-read the book to get my bearings and saw how different it was but still in love with the movie. The set was gorgeous and the horses are beautiful. Tim McGraw has proved himself to be a wonderful actor. And changing the "main" characters from Male boy to Female , I think, made the movie better. I cried like a baby in parts even when I knew how it turns out. We can all relate to Katy and her issues- makes her more real in peoples eyes. The book has so many descriptions in it you may lose the story at some point but the movie keeps right on trucking.

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16 out of 23 people found the following comment useful :-
Reviewed by Nigel_Q, 22. November 2006

Author: Nigel_Q von Picadilly Circus

Sometimes the chasm between film critic and audience is simply too big to cross. It's no one's fault, we just see more movies than the rest of you. So when a critic watches a movie like Flicka, he see in it the things he's seen a hundred times before in film after film after film. If you've never seen any of the literally multitudes of other movies Flicka is drawing from, then there's a good chance you'll find it enjoyable. Unaware of the movie's unoriginality, I can see how the occasional film-goer and especially young audiences will really enjoy it. There's nothing little girls love better than horses.

For the rest of us though, Flicka is an exercise in repetition. Yes, the scenery is beautiful and the horses quite stunning, but the script is just another in a long line of daddy-daughter conflict stories with a dash of animal husbandry mixed in. There hasn't been a new addition to the genre since The Little Mermaid, a movie that continues to define in the minds of youngsters and not-so-youngsters the nature of parent/child developmental conflict. Flicka doesn't redefine anything it just goes through the same familiar motions.

Based on the popular (and in my estimation quite good) novel "My Friend Flicka", the movie version stars Alison Lohman as budding young farm girl Katy McLaughlin. Katy is fifteen or sixteen, an age which Alison has been playing successfully for four or five years. No more. Lohman is twenty-eight and starting to look it. Flicka struggles mightily to young her up, but the result is more creepy than anything; they might as well have just put her hair in pigtails, given her a lollypop and called it a day for all the good it does. Once baby-faced Lohman has grown up, and it's about time her characters did too.

Katy returns home to her family's Quarterhorse ranch for the summer, and immediately starts butting heads with her father, played by country music star Tim McGraw. I'm not sure what it is that makes movie stars want to be musicians and musicians want to be actors, but in the case of McGraw his transition isn't wholly unwelcome. He's not exactly polished, but his stiff, folksy behavior serves him well here, as it did in Friday Night Lights. Katy's dad wants her to get an education, while Katy wants to run wild and free across the ranch, feeding fever dreams filled with horses.

While roaming the range Katy encounters a rare wild Mustang, helps capture her, and names her Flicka. Forbidden by her father to ride it, she develops a connection with the horse almost as a form of rebellion, secretly training and taming it late at night after dear old Dad is in bed. In the book, Flicka and Katy's relationship takes front and center. In the film, it's really just a catalyst for teenage angst. Before long Katy and her horse are in all kinds of trouble because of course, parents just don't understand.

The fractured relationship between Katy and her family works because the actors involved bring something to it. Lohan doesn't look the part, but she's still a fantastic actress, McGraw's awkwardness with acting actually works for his uncomfortable relationship with his daughter, and Maria Bello radiates strength and warmth as Katy's mother. Their voice is strong, they're just not singing a new tune.

That's OK. The real audience for this movie I suppose, is horse crazy little girls who'll never pick up on most of the background noise of family relationships cluttering up all the girl on horse affection happening in the film. It doesn't matter how many times she's seen it before, your daughter is going to love Flicka. If you haven't already been indoctrinated by her with all the other similarly themed movie material out there on this subject maybe you won't hate watching it with her.

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14 out of 21 people found the following comment useful :-
Why you break my heart?, 18. Februar 2007
Author: sariemarais von Norway

At the age of 12, I read the first book of this trilogy of Mary O'Hara. I lent the books at the school-library, and somehow i still got them (17 years later). The books were old, had a wonderful smell, and i had this ritual of listening to the soundtrack of "Days of Thunder" while reading the books every night on my bed. This is the memory from my childhood that i remember and value the most of all. The way O'Hara described Wyoming and the life on the farm, with the horses, the nature, the interaction between the family-members... I have never, even since, had a reading-experience like that (and I study literature at the university). It made me want to go to the US and settle in Wyoming. It was a world that embraced me all the way. It made me dream of certain actors that could realize these novels (at that time, in 1990, Mel Gibson was the perfect Rob for instance...). I found out that it would have been best to make a series of them, because all the parts in the books were so important for the good experience you get, that they would have to be included. I have always dreamed of these books to be realized on screen. But I was also afraid that someone would pick up the idea and tell the story from the books in a wrong way. And guess what happened? Last week I got a dog. Wonder why I called him Chaps? Exactly. So, today I went to the local café and found the Flicka-movie. I can tell you all I was surprised, I hadn't even heard of the movie. I brought it home, and now I've seen it, well, it's almost impossible to describe how betrayed I feel. It actually hurts inside. I don't think I was that hurt even when my boyfriend left me. What?! Who would destroy and Hollywoodify this beautiful novel? I'm so shocked I just had to write. I guess the movie could have been good if it didn't have the references to the novels of Mary O'Hara, but it does, and that just totally break my heart. Didn't the producers or the directors or anyone that had anything to do with this film-production ever read the three novels? This is a production that belongs in the trash-can. The only aspect from the novels they almost got to work, was the "Green Grass of Wyoming". But, Rob isn't quite like that! Ken is not a girl. The interaction between the family is totally misleading. Gus WAS Swedish, so why not let him be that? The wrong story on the name of Flicka. And then to commit the awful crime to mix Flicka with Thunderhead!! I can't believe what certain people are able to do just for the cause of making dirty, commercial money. To press this wonderful story down to a 90 minutes production I consider impossible to do, and if not impossible, it would take a great work of art to make. 20th Century Fox has dishonored and totally stabbed in the back the author of the books, the characters in the books, the name Flicka, and all the readers who ACTUALLY have read the books and know what they are like. Shame on you!!! You really make my heart bleed.

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12 out of 18 people found the following comment useful :-
Very Good, 4. Januar 2007

Author: cjbtl25 von Tennessee

I just went and seen this Movie. I loved it, it's a beautiful story. The Location and Horses are BEAUTIFUL. Alison Lohman does a wonderful job as Katy. Her emotion at one point in the movie made me cry. Her love for Flicka is known from the moment she sees her in the Mountains. The mother played by Maria Bello and is the glue that holds th family together. If there is a problem or conflict she tries to work out the problem. Ryan Kwanten plays Howard the son. He is cute. And he is the one the father wants to take over the ranch when the time comes. Katy(Lohman)and Howard(Kwanten) aren't just sister and brother but best friends. Tim McGraw does a pretty good job. The way he shows the characters love for his family is awesome. I can't wait for it to come out in the stores.

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4 out of 4 people found the following comment useful :-
Wyoming in all its splendor, 20. Dezember 2007

Author: jotix100 von New York

Mary O'Hara's novel "My Friend Flicka" is the basis for this wonderful family oriented movie. Directed by Michael Mayer, a man whose work we had admired before, offers a positive view of a Wyoming family that is struggling to make a living out the ranch where they raise horses and the changes that are happening around them.

At the center of the story is Katy McLaughlin, a young woman who is happier being in the family ranch than at the boarding school, where she seems to be out of place. When Katy goes back home after not completing a key exam, she begins to feel like a human being. All the great outdoors are at her finger tips. The horses she loves are also part of her life.

A fearless rider, Katy is surprised one day by a mountain lion who comes near her. A mustang that appears out of nowhere comes to her rescue, attracting Katy's attention. A bond will develop between the young woman and the horse that will prove it to be a mutual love and respect they feel about one another. She names the horse Flicka and becomes her champion when her father feels a mustang doesn't belong in the ranch because what it will do to the other pure bred horses. In the end, the father, as well as the family realize how deep Katy cares for Flicka and the way the horse responds to her.

Alison Lohman, who is seen as Flicka, is an actress that seems a natural no matter what role she is asked to play. Tim McGraw does justice to the father, and lovely Maria Bello is perfect as the mother.

The beautiful cinematography by J. Michael Muro does wonders to create the right atmosphere in which the action is presented. The same can be said for the musical score of Aaron Zigman, which is tuneful and fits well in the picture. There is no doubt Michael Mayer will continue to surprise us in his future projects.

Highly recommended for all families.

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15 out of 26 people found the following comment useful :-
Flicka is a faithful update of "My Friend Flicka", 20. Oktober 2006

Author: rlgolden von Woodstock, GA

So many times when writers "update" a movie, they destroy it by changing the heartwarming plot into something colder and more distant. Flicka remains true to the book, even if they made Flicka's owner a girt instead of a boy. Allison Lohman, really deserves credit as the teenage girl with spirit who find Flicka, a similarly spirited mustang. Her mother is Maria Bello (Doctor on ER, owner of Coyote Ugly) and her father is a beardless Tim McGraw (that took a while to get use to). Tim does a surprisingly good job as "Dad," and although its not perfect, he doesn't detract from the movie.

Expect lots of tears - bring lots of tissue.

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5 out of 7 people found the following comment useful :-
My friend Flicka? More like the Black Stallion, 27. Oktober 2006

Author: celticravenwolf von Canada

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

If you're a fan of the book 'My Friend Flicka' or the original 1943 movie of the same name, you are going to be severely disappointed with 'Flicka'.

This isn't the story of a young boy daydreaming about owning his own horse, and when his dad allows it he chooses one thought to be too crazy to tame, a boy who learns about love and responsibility. It's the story of a teenage girl who daydreams about owning her own horse, goes out on her own to catch a wild mustang, and tries to train it behind her father's back. Her father sells it when she gets hurt, then she turns around and steals it from the rodeo. The moral of this heartwarming tale is that if you disregard your parents often enough, they'll eventually cave in and see that you're right.

So basically, nothing to do with the original Flicka at all.

Good old Gus is reduced to an extra with a few lines (like passing on that 'Flicka' is Swedish for 'little girl) instead of a caring and involved farmhand who disobeys his boss because of a little boy's love. Flicka becomes a mustang, not part of the family's herd, and Katie (instead of Ken) is not allowed to have her own horse as her father is stiff, strict, and - let's face it - sexist. And the cougar takes a more sinister and active role.

The worst thing about this movie is what it teaches young kids about horses. The things that Katie does in the film are unrealistic and downright dangerous, and the father is absolutely right in trying to stop her (though if he had have taught her how to train the horse as he did in the original, things would have turned out differently, but then society these days requires more action).

This movie is the typical childhood Black Stallion fantasy, to the point where they even made Flicka BLACK instead of sorrel. It wouldn't have been as bad if they did not try to use the name of a much loved classic novel to promote their film. Were this a stand alone story, it would have been far more acceptable, but to claim that this film was based on the novel is a joke.

That being said, it was beautifully filmed and Tim McGraw did a much better job acting than I expected.

Bottom line - your kids will love it, but if you're a fan of the original or know ANYTHING at all about horses, this movie isn't for you.

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5 out of 7 people found the following comment useful :-
Horse Feathers, 24. Oktober 2006

Author: Ric-7 von New Orleans LA

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

This is an extremely conventional, exactly-what-you-would-expect family film, which paints by the numbers, but unfortunately can't count higher than about 5. There is one absolutely terrific "movie moment": when Flicka is being hauled off, with Katie running down a dirt road screaming for Flicka . . . it starts to rain. No warning, no dark clouds before--it just starts to rain at just the right moment. It was so hokey--I loved it.

And then, when Katie develops 105-degree fever in the space of a couple hours and is unconscious, her dad (Tim McGraw) has a BIG scene. And this is after the big scene where the feverish and heavily made-up Katie comes down the stairs like Regan in The Exorcist and tells Dad something very touching.

The acting was very uninspired. Not awful, just not very interesting. This probably is best illustrated in McGraw's performance. In Friday Night Lights, he showed that with good direction, he could be a very interesting actor. Here, he was nothing more than passable.

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6 out of 9 people found the following comment useful :-
our children critiqued this movie for us, 1. November 2006

Author: stults7 von United States

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Unfortunately, we did not read a review of Flicka before taking our three children. Our 13-year old son commented during the movie about the father/son shoving scene. Our 9-year old daughter told us how disappointed she was that the girl was rebellious with no consequences for that behavior (in fact, she is rewarded), and our 16-year old said it was too sappy for her taste. I liked the music, the scenery, and the horses. The acting was good too, but the theme is counter to what we think are important values: integrity, respect for one another, and healthy communication. We own a paint horse and it is no where as big as the one portrayed in this movie. Was "Flicka" in fact a mustang?

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