Film digest

DREAM HORSE (PG, 113 mins) Drama/Comedy/Romance. Toni Collette, Damian Lewis, Owen Teale, Joanna Page, Nicholas Farrell, Alan David, Lynda Baron. Director: Euros Lyn.

Reverentially described as the sport of kings, horse racing has long been the preserve of royalty and the wealthy.

A thoroughbred stallion of impeccable breeding with a glittering career on the racecourse can sell for more than £50 million and command sixfigure stud fees.

In 2009, a 23-strong syndicate from the former mining village of Cefn Fforest in Gwent made headlines when their horse – a chestnut gelding named Dream Alliance – romped to victory at the Welsh Grand National.

The nags to riches fairy tale inspired Louise Osmond’s awardwinning 2015 documentary Dark Horse and six years later, a glossy dramatisation directed by Euros Lyn trots out a crowdpleasing underdog story across the class divide in a similar vein to Brassed Off and The Full Monty.

“A horse raised on an allotment has got a cat in hell’s chance of ever racing,” chuckles one colourful character in Dream Horse.

Sporting history proves them wrong and scriptwriter Neil McKay draws heavily on interviews with the real-life owners to flesh out his menagerie of syndicate members led by Muriel’s Wedding star Toni Collette.

She grapples valiantly with a melodic Welsh accent, and occasionally grazes closer to her native New South Wales, but beautifully conveys the passion of a wife who lives vicariously through her horse and rebuilds steely determination and selfbelief with each small victory.

Collette plays Jan Vokes, who works as a supermarket checkout operator and a barmaid at the local working men’s club in between caring for her parents (Alan David, Lynda Baron) and wearily stoking the embers of her marriage to husband Brian (Owen Teale).

Competitive passions of her youth – breeding whippets for show, racing pigeons – are a distant memory and the fire in Jan’s soul has almost been extinguished until she overhears accountant Howard Davies (Damian Lewis) regaling drinking buddies with stories of a horse racing syndicate that almost bankrupted him.

Boozy banter sows the seeds of an outlandish idea.

“I’m going to breed a horse,” Jan tells her incredulous husband.

“And I’m going to play fly-half for Wales!” jokingly responds Brian.

True to her word, Jan invests her savings in a gentle mare named Rewbell and persuades friends and neighbours to invest £10 a week to breed Rewbell and stable a chestnut foal with trainer Philip Hobbs (Nicholas Farrell).

Dream Horse is a feelgood story of dauntless community spirit against the odds, including a career-threatening injury to the horse that requires experimental stem cell therapy.

Collette, Lewis, Teale and co invest their patriotic villagers with relatable fears and earthy humour, building to a rousing singalong to Sir Tom Jones’ Delilah over the end credits.

Exhilarating race sequences place cameras at the horses’ eye level rather than with the jockeys so we are safely saddled with Dream Alliance until the final furlong.

FELIX AND THE HIDDEN TREASURE (U, 85 mins) Animation/Adventure/Comedy/ Romance. Featuring the voices of Daniel Brochu, Vlasta Vrana, Karine Vanasse, Holly Gauthier-Frankel, Angela Galuppo, Arthur Holden, Wyatt Bowen, Marcel Jeannin. Director: Nicola Lemay.

A plucky pre-teen searches for the greatest treasure of them all – his missing father – in a computer-animated odyssey directed by Nicola Lemay, which takes on copious water before the titular tyke discovers the truth about the fabled booty of Darkshadow Island.

An inter-generational life lesson about public displays of emotion from boys (“When I was your age, a young fella would never let himself be seen with tears in his eyes”) feels outdated.

There’s no risk of Lemay’s film unleashing a trickle of saltwater.

Two years after Felix (voiced by Daniel Brochu) learnt about the disappearance of his seafaring father Jack (Marcel Jeannin) during a daredevil expedition to Darkshadow Island, the intrepid 12-year-old remains convinced that his old man is alive.

Grieving mother Marlene (Holly Gauthier-Frankel) reluctantly embarks on a 10-day tropical cruise, leaving Felix and baby sister Mia in the care of their aunt Annie (Angela Galuppo).

Felix fibs about a sleepover with video game-obsessed friend Max (Wyatt Bowen) as a cover to head out to sea in search of Jack in an inflatable dinghy “no bigger than a bath tub”, accompanied by his pet cat Rover.

The boy’s reckless actions almost end in disaster until retired fisherman Old Tom (Vlasta Vrana) and his one-legged green parrot Squawk intervene.

The salty sea dog agrees to accompany tearful Felix to Darkshadow Island.

Deep within the rocky fortress, the adventurers stumble upon a subterranean idyll ruled by menacing Morgaa (Karine Vanasse), who lures wealthy patrons to her “enlightened community” with the promise of immortality.

Felix And The Hidden Treasure provides a fleeting distraction for young audiences but feels overlong at 85 minutes.

Cute animal sidekicks, including a ginger cat which identifies as a dog, are predominantly comic relief except for one unfortunate critter, which is grievously harmed in the making of the film.