(rated PG-13, 125 mins) It’s Texas 1949 and John Grady (Matt Damon) has just learned that momma has “bet the ranch” (sold it) after daddy dies, so she and her lover make some quick cash. Leaving the only life he’s ever known, Grady sets out with sidekick cowboy Lacey Rawlins (Henry Thomas), who are a far cry from Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. After crossing the Mexican border, they land at a hacienda where they have four days to train sixteen mustangs into saddle-riding mode. But these wild horses could drag Grady away when he meets the lovely boss’s daughter (Penelope Cruz) who usually dates guys that “drive airplanes, let alone cars”, (not the horse sitter). Suddenly Grady finds himself misguided, wanting to be his own stallion to the lovely mare. He lands into a Mexican prison for a combo of love and suspected horse theft. The story moves along rather charmingly then the “pretty” movie turns “ugly” and the horse-breeding premise disappears. Cruz and Damon have about as much chemistry as General Santa Anna at gunpoint. The dialog is lame yet the Spanish manages to save a few lines with subtitles. One can’t help wonder what writer Ted “Silence Of The Lambs” Tally been doing all these years, that finally delivered “All The Pretty Horses” with all these pretty cliches?
