Hidalgo (2004)

Hidalgo appeared a year before Viggo changed from being a handsome but dull leading man into the real emotion-button pushing actor that he is now (his time with Cronenberg was the turning point). It tells the tale of a washed-up cowboy who undertakes a treacherous 3000 miles cross-desert horse race in Arabia, an area that he and his mustang have no prior experience of.
At heart it's the story of a despondent underdog who through hardship finds his own self-worth, but the overproduced, predictable, almost comic book manner in which it all unfolds is much too bland and safe to make an impact; so too is most of the music. There's a worthy challenge within the tale, but there's none for Viggo the actor to get a hold of and it shows.
The attempt to mix old Hollywood values with that of new Hollywood is something that I applaud, but the two things didn't sit well together this time.

2½ distant waterholes out of 5