Categories Dream Horse Print Media Review

Dream Horse Review by Slant Magazine

A Warm-Hearted Tribute to a Spirited Animal and People

by Mark Jenkins | Slant Magazine | May 17, 2021

***3 out of 4 stars***

Anyone who’s seen Dark Horse, Louise Osmond’s 2015 documentary about a group of poor Welsh villagers pooling their money to bankroll a race horse, will know what’s going to happen in Dream Horse, a fictionalization of the earlier film. But, then, so will anyone who’s ever seen an underdog sports movie, or one of those British ensemble comedies that celebrate working-class hopes and schemes. The comic drama works because of the smarts and relative subtlety of Euros Lyn’s direction and Neil McKay’s screenplay, and thanks to a winning cast of Welsh locals and a few outsiders, notably the versatile Toni Collette, who never lets her accent slip from south Wales to her native New South Wales.

Collette deftly plays Jan Vokes, a middle-aged empty-nester who tends a supermarket cash register by day and a social-club bar at night. Her affinity for animals is established in the opening scene, in which she awakens in the bed she shares with her long-unemployed husband, Brian (Owen Teale), and a huge dog, before then stumbling into the kitchen to be greeted by a convalescent goose. Jan doesn’t covet a horse until she overhears local tax accountant Howard Davies (Damian Lewis) at the club, boasting about his success with a horseracing syndicate. (The story is partly true but missing some sobering details.) Inspired, Jan calls a meeting of neighbors in the depressed former mining town, and persuades enough of them to tithe weekly to fund the purchase of a mare. The winning argument involves hwyl, a Welsh word that can be translated as “fun” but also as “collective spirit.”

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Categories Dream Horse

Dream Horse Gets New Release Date – March 25, 2021

In the Home Stretch…

by Gingersnap | damian-lewis.com | March 25, 2021

Just in time for Kentucky Derby month, Bleecker Street’s upcoming film Dream Horse is set to be released in AMC theaters on May 21, 2021. Dream Horse is a classic tale of triumph against adversity, directed by Euros Lyn, written by Neil McKay and starring Damian Lewis and Toni Collette. The movie is based on the true story of one woman’s extraordinary dream to breed and raise a champion racehorse on the allotment of her forgotten Welsh village – and of how she brings her entire community with her. Based on the documentary Dark Horse, directed by Louise Osmond.

Source: Deadline

Categories Dream Horse Video

VIDEO: Damian Speaks with Oli Bell About Dream Horse and New Release Date – June 19, 2020

The Social Stable

by Gingersnap | damian-lewis.com | June 19, 2020

Damian joined Oli Bell to talk about his upcoming movie Dream Horse based on the remarkable story of Janet Vokes and Dream Alliance. Originally to be released in April but delayed due to CoVid-19, Dream Horse will now be in theaters September 4, 2020.

Categories Media Print Media The Baker

Move Over Coen Brothers For the New Kids on the Set

Lewis Filming Duo

by Claire Hill | Western Mail | May 6, 2006

Move over the Coen Brothers, there’s a new film making duo in town, and this time they’re Welsh. Actor Damian Lewis has teamed up with his baby brother Gareth to make their first film together. Claire Hill joined them on location in their beloved Wales

Damian Lewis’s legs are half sticking out of a makeshift vent shaft as the actor attaches knee pads underneath his all- black ensemble.

A gun is visible and is just peeping out from the band of his trousers. Next to his feet, rolls of silver gaffer tape and wires are scattered on the floor. Directly in front of him, in the old paper mill, tucked at the back of a Cardiff industrial estate, someone fashions a gun holster out of an old yoga mat.

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