Lean on Pete **** (2017, Charlie Plummer, Travis Fimmel, Chloë Sevigny, Steve Buscemi, Steve Zahn, Thomas Mann) – Movie Review 

OK give Charlie Plummer the whatever award for Most Promising Newcomer as 15-year-old Charley Thompson who takes a summer job with washed-up horse trainer Del (Steve Buscemi) and befriends his struggling racehorse named Lean on Pete.

Well, actually, Charlie Plummer did win the Marcello Mastroianni Award for Best Young Actor or Actress at the Venice Film Festival 2017. So, good then. Subtle, natural and appealing, it is a winning performance. The film, or its Andrew Haigh, was nominated for the Golden Lion for Best Film and did not win. I get that. Charlie Plummer is better than the film, but still it is a very good film indeed, a heart-wrencher, a tear-jerker and, eventually, a heart-warmer. So it’s an emotional roller-coaster ride, with a lot of strong observation, character building and, yes, laughs too among the tears and the hand-wrenching.

By now you’re probably getting the idea that I enjoyed Lean on Pete. Those without a heart or tears to shed may remain entirely unmoved by it. That is their loss. This is a sweet and lovely movie, and loss is high up there among its subjects.

Haigh, who made the brilliant 45 Years (2015), has no trouble re-locating to backwoods America and moving his stark gaze from older Brit folks to an all-American youngster and going full on for a very American coming-of-age drama.

What can I tell you? Lean On Pete works, and works big time. It’s a huge crowd pleaser and heart warmer. It may never be film festival award winner. I don’t even know why it’s showing at film festivals. It’s more or a mainstream movie than that. On a good day, a really  good day, Disney could have made it. But, as it is, Channel Four and the BFI put their money into it. I’m hoping that investment pays off, a real well for them. It deserves to.

Haigh deserves a crossover hit, handling the material with artful skill, joy and imagination. Lean On Pete starts as one movie (a father-son story), becomes another (a kid, a horse and a trainer film), and then turns into one of those Journey movies. The road is dark and dangerous for Charlie Plummer’s character Charley Thompson. But there is no doubt that he is going to pull through, somehow, against all odds.

We need these stories always, but especially right now. If Charley doesn’t make it, we are not going to. This lovely movie makes it seem as crucial as that.

Haigh is great with actors. Buscemi is astonishingly good as the weasly trainer in a possible Best Supporting Actor award performance, Chloë Sevigny is good as the kindly, wise jockey, Travis Fimmel is strong as the single father Ray, and that nice Steve Zahn quite scary as the down-and-out Silver.

Haigh’s screenplay is based on Willy Vlautin’s novel, and that’s a surprise because Lean On Pete is so cinematic that you can’t detect a remote whiff of literary adaptation.

© Derek Winnert 2017 Movie Review 

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