Everyone remembers the 2015 Melbourne Cup. A 100 to 1 odds horse won the cup with a girl on board as jockey. Rachel Griffiths has said when she saw Michelle cross the line, she saw a movie that needed to be made. Ride Like A Girl is the movie.
As a little girl, Michelle Payne dreamed of the impossible: winning the Melbourne Cup — horse-racing’s toughest two-mile race. The youngest of 10 children, Michelle is raised by her single father Paddy. She leaves school at 15 to become a jockey and after early failures she finds her feet, but a family tragedy, followed by her own near fatal horse fall all but ends the dream. With the love of her dad and her brother Stevie, Michelle will not give up and against all the medical advice, and the protests of her siblings, she rides on, and meets the horse, Prince of Penzance. The rest is history.
Unlike the odds Prince of Penzance had to win the Melbourne Cup, this movie is short odds to become one of the biggest movies in Australia in 2019. Australians love a good movie about an underdog. Remember The Castle? So, it won’t matter what I say in this review… it will be a hit.
Is it a good movie? Yes, it is. Is it a great movie? No, it is not, but everyone should go see it to see how the win came about. Teresa Palmer plays Michelle Payne and does a respectable job, although I wasn’t convinced, she was the best choice. Sam Neill plays Michelle’s father, bringing up 10 children while still working. Sam does an admirable job playing Paddy Payne, the stubborn but loving father.
However, the real surprise of the film is not an actor. Michelle’s real-life brother, Stevie, plays himself and is the true star of the movie. He is the one that people will remember and talk about after seeing the movie. A future in film maybe ahead of him.
Ride Like a Girl is not the best sports movie ever made, but it does tick the right boxes. Rachel Griffith’s debut directional feature film will be a winner.
Ride Like A Girl is a true family movie. It is enjoyable and loveable. You already know the result, but go for the ride.
Ride Like A girl showing at Palace Nova Cinema’s from Thursday 26 September 2019
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