Reviewed by Rama Gaind.
Director: Brad Keller, Defiant Screen Entertainment.
This is another one of those dramas which is sure to have family appeal – similar to other equestrian film favourites including Black Beauty, Flicka and Dream Horse.
All Charlie (Yaya Gosselin) ever wanted was a horse. As a 14-year-old coping with the divorce of her parents, a new school and typical teenage growing pains.
Charlie spends lots of time daydreaming about riding horses, so when her father, Troy (Edward Furlong), tells his best friend, Clint (Casper Van Dien), that he would get her anything, Charlie asks for a horse. On their way to buy one, however, Charlie and Clint find a horse on the side of the road. They can’t track down the owner, so they take the horse back to the ranch while they figure out what to do next. Charlie now has a purpose as she cares for the lost horse.
The feel-good, largely family-friendly theme sees teenagers demonstrating esteem and mettle, though there is one girl in school who is particularly mean to Charlie. While school principal doesn’t support the students, Charlie’s good friend Zach (Carson Cunningham) goes out of his way to assist her. When he suggests she enter the rodeo doing barrel racing, Charlie becomes eager to enter the competition as she learns more about the sport.
However, all is not smooth sailing. After she gets lost when out riding, and her horse Chango is injured, her mother wants her to give up riding and to let the horse go. Charlie’s dreams appear to be crashing around her, further complicated when she is accused of cheating and is suspended from school.
Then, just when it seemed like all her aspirations were about to come true, the original owner of the horse appears and threatens to take away her dream.
- Heart of a Champion has been launched on Digital
