Review: Underdog ‘Dark Horse’ is cute but underwhelming

The rise and fall and rise and fall of an unlikely racehorse and the ultimate true-life underdog gets the documentary treatment in “Dark Horse,” directed by Louise Osmond. The tale, ripe for a narrative feature film adaptation, starts with Jan Vokes, a barmaid in a downtrodden Welsh mining town, with a dream to breed a champion racehorse.

The odds are stacked against her, with horse racing typically the purview of the landed gentry, and an expensive endeavor at that. Nevertheless, Jan gets a group from her village together to sponsor a horse, Dream Alliance. He’s plucky and determined, and his racing career is a roller coaster of unprecedented highs and disappointing lows, culminating with a near-disastrous, possibly career-ending injury. But don’t count out Dream Alliance just yet.

The documentary uses a straightforward talking-heads style, with all of the quirky small-town members of the alliance contributing their charm and wit to the yarn. However, there are a few structural choices that make the film feel disorganized.

Certain aspects of the town’s mining history and the historically aristocratic racing world would have more effect as individual sections explored in more depth, rather than interspersed throughout. For as heart-pounding as the races seem, that momentum is not translated on-screen.

A sweet if underwhelming documentary with plenty of character, but told in such a simple and gentle way, it doesn’t quite grab audiences as it could.

-------------

“Dark Horse”

MPAA rating: PG for some mild thematic elements and language

Running time: 1 hour, 26 minutes

Playing: Laemmle Royal, West Los Angeles