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Lean on Pete

You can't get anywhere on your own

British filmmaker Andrew Haigh (Weekend, 45 Years) hits the American highway for this touching tale of a troubled boy who strikes up a rapport with an ailing racehorse called Lean on Pete. This good-natured four-legged friend can't arrive quickly enough for 15-year-old Portland teen Charley (Charlie Plummer): His mom is long gone, a loving aunt is nothing but a preoccupying memory and his well-meaning but wildly erratic dad (Travis Fimmel) is hardly a thoroughbred in the parent stakes.

It's not for kids, but this adaptation of a Willy Vlautin novel plays like a thoughtful, arthouse spin on a parable for children—one that's not afraid to make us do the work in imagining what's going on in its main character's mind. The movie's strongest scenes come early, as the collapse of Charley's fragile home life is softened by finding a new purpose elsewhere. He earns cash helping out likable old racing hand Del (Steve Buscemi), who races horses in scrappy local competitions, sometimes with the help of past-it jockey Bonnie (Chloë Sevigny).

But this sense of a new dawn is not to last. Charley is never far from life's cruelties; they pile up when he's forced to hit the road with Pete, meeting various characters en route, some more welcoming than others. There's tragedy here, but what's most winning about Lean on Pete is how Haigh never lingers on misery. He's as interested in surprising kindnesses and the goodness of most folks as he is in life's knocks.

Haigh is nothing if not a sensitive, compassionate director, and he puts a lot of faith in young Plummer in the film's many quiet scenes, especially those in which it's just Charley and his horse. As the story becomes more episodic, and Charley ends up further and further from home, the film feels distant from its earlier, more nourishing moments. It's a road movie in which the origin is more interesting than the destination, but Lean on Pete is never less than warm and fully felt.

Rating: 4 stars

Courtesy: Dave Calhoun, Time Out (New York)

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Directed by: 
Andrew Haigh
Running Time: 
125
Country(ies): 
U.S.A.
Year: 
2017
Language: 
English
Starring: 
Travis Fimmel, Steve Buscemi, Chloë Sevigny
Official site: 
Link
Screenplay by: 
Andrew Haigh
Rated: 
14A

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