Welcome to British Isles Friday! British Isles Friday is a weekly event for sharing all things British and Irish - reviews, photos, opinions, trip reports, guides, links, resources, personal stories, interviews, and research posts. Join us each Friday to link your British and Irish themed content and to see what others have to share. The link list is at the bottom of this post. Pour a cup of tea or lift a pint and join our link party!
Last week, I enjoyed a webcam looking at the Hastings Pier. Tina enjoyed The Enigma Game by Elizabeth Wein after reading the review on my blog a few weeks ago. Heather shared her enthusiasm for equestrian sports at the Olympics, particularly Team Great Britain competing in dressage.
Dream Horse is set in a small town in Wales that doesn't have much going for it - like many small towns in the world, these days, including the one where I grew up in Missouri.
Jan Vokes isn't ready to give up on the kind of dreams that make life worth living. While working as a barmaid in the local pub, she overhears a conversation about a syndicate that owned a race horse. With some research and some community organizing, she pulls together enough people to contribute a weekly sum. Together, they own a horse that they name Dream Alliance. Can this horse change fortunes and lives?
Dream Horse is based on a true story. The film is fairly predictable, but it definitely hits the spot if you're in the mood for a feel-good sports story that features horses.
Part of the viewing pleasure comes from the cast. Toni Collette plays Jan Vokes. Collette is Australian but one of her acting super-powers is accents. She's played characters from all over the English-speaking world. I liked her best in a Netflix drama miniseries called Unbelievable, where she played an American detective. If you haven't heard of Toni Collette, there's a YouTube video about that.
Other actors you may recognize are Damian Lewis ( Homeland, Wolf Hall), Owen Teale ( Game of Thrones), and Nicholas Farrell ( The Iron Lady, several film adaptations of Shakespeare plays, and lots of television shows).
Of course, my favorite part was the chance to visit Wales from my sofa. An article on Damian Lewis' website contains spoilers. After you've seen the movie, check it out to learn about the Welsh filming locations.
Have you seen Dream Horse? What did you think?
About Joy Weese Moll
a librarian writing about books
