FILM NIGHT –
Dream Horse – 20th October 2021

Film Night – Dream Horse

2020 Drama – 113mins, Cert PG

Director: Euros Lyn

Starring: Toni Collette, Damian Lewis, Owen Teale, Alan David, Lynda Baron, Karl Johnson, Steffan Rhodri

Released in June 2021, a heart-warming true story of the triumph of the underdog. Dream Alliance is an unlikely racehorse bred by Welsh bartender Jan Vokes who persuades her neighbours to help raise Dream in the hope he can compete with the racing elites.

When Sir Michael Balcon was put in charge of production at Ealing Studios, it was to make uncomplicated comedies to help the British people through the War. The hey-day of the Ealing comedy was however in the post-war years of austerity, when pulling together, and fair-shares for all, were the rallying calls. That was a long time ago, and it has taken all these years for Dream Horse to come along and emulate all that was best about the Ealing comedy.

Jan Vokes, (Toni Collette) a bar girl in the local Welsh pub, inspired by a half-heard conversation at the bar, decides to breed a racehorse. She sets up a syndicate among the locals with shares of £1000 each and they agree to name the horse Dream Alliance, reflecting the nature of the syndicate. She engages the well-known trainer, Philip Hobbs but Dream Alliance goes on to lose race after race, until, guided by jockey Tom O’Brien, it wins the Welsh Grand National at Chepstow. So, with determination and, in truth, a great deal of luck the small guy can beat the field, and the odds.

Euros Lyn’s first major movie, after a career making popular TV drama, Dream Horse guarantees ‘not a dry eye in the house’ as we cheer on the ‘no hoper’. Toni Collette is, as always, wonderful as Jan and Damian Lewis is, once again, reliable and believable as her foil. A cast of Welsh stalwarts support them heroically. An uncomplicated, feel-good, classic.

John Crome

Click here to read about Dream Horse on IMDb
Click here to download the flyer in pdf format