Movie Review by S Felce
Starring: Viggo Mortensen, Omar Sharif, Zuleikha Robinson, Louise Lombard
Director: Joe Johnston
HIDALGO tells the story of Frank T Hopkins (Viggo Mortensen) and his Indian pony Hidalgo. Once a pony express and horse race winner, Hopkins is now using his great skills as a horse rider in Buffalo Bill’s circus, dressed up as a clown. Then the offer to compete at the Ocean of Fire, a 3000-mile horse race across the desert, comes along and Hopkins decides to take this chance.
This is an adventure movie with beautiful landscapes, a bit of romance, a cruel villain, a king and a princess. Mortensen is once again our hero, fighting to find his own identity and his destiny. It’s also a Disney movie so do expect every quest to be solved and every fight to be won. Overall it is a charming story and it is a great and unique journey.
HIDALGO is definitely a feel-good movie, the kind of film you’ll go to see on a Friday night armed with your big basket of popcorn to be taken away for a couple of hours and transported to the Arabian Desert. Mortensen shows he can carry the movie by himself as the hero character, maybe because our memories of him as Aragorn in THE LORD OF THE RINGS trilogy are still fresh, but this definitely suits him!
Get your popcorn ready and enjoy the ride!
