"Secretariat" movie review

An enjoyable movie for anyone who enjoys horses! The racing action is very exciting, and all the more thrilling for Secretariat having really done it!

The only real downer, to me, was that Penny (Secretariat's owner) seems to put her horse responsibilities above her family responsibilities, and, isn't depicted as having a very close relationship with her husband. They treat each other more like politely kind brother and sister. It's partly the fault of the husband being a very bland actor, I believe, and another of the movie's focus being on her and the horse, thus leaving little time for development and better understanding of her family life. So no real objections, just a sense of dissatisfaction with that aspect. Watch the movie for the horse story, not the human story, and you'll be fine.

As far as genuine objectionable content, all I have to say is that in one sequence, one of the daughters is wearing a pair of pretty short shorts. The movie is rated PG for "brief mild language" but I'm honestly not sure what that refers to. I didn't catch it, wherever it came up.

The cast in the "horse world" is excellent. The trainer, the groom, and the jockey "make the movie" in my opinion! And I was pleased to find out the actor who portrayed the jockey is a Christian! I was told that the director is a Christian, too, but I haven't researched it for myself. Scripture does open the movie! A passage from Job, concerning horses. It is the best movie opening ever! So cool how they did it! You should watch the beginning, if no more. :)

This movie goes down on my "recommended" list, for the sake of the clean content and exciting horse action.

"The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax" by Dorothy Gilman

I found this book, the first of a series, in our county library and thought it looked very promising. I love Agatha Christie's "Miss Marple" mysteries and this looked similar.

Mrs. Pollifax is tired of her life as an old lady. Her children are grown and moved away, and she lives alone, spending her days volunteering at one charity or another. As she slips toward depression, her doctor recommends that she should do something she always wanted to do, but couldn't, because of family responsibilities. But what Mrs. Pollifax has always wanted to be is a spy! She applies for the job, and through a series of hiccups she is accidentally hired by the department as a courier of secret documents from Mexico. It was supposed to be a very safe and very simple mission. But things go wrong through no fault of Mrs. Pollifax, and she soon lands in a most unexpected situation, and performs in a most unexpected way.

The book would have met with my every favorable expectation if not for the unexpected foul language sprinkled generously throughout. Why the author would have made such a move, effectively crossing children off her target audience, is beyond me. And for myself, that's not something I need to exposing myself to more of, (I can't help hearing it in the real world but I can help reading it). I could overlook a word or two but not in this quantity. There is also no reference to God that is not flippant, and are a couple references to "the gods." I am very sorry to bid Mrs. Pollifax farewell forever, because with a few alterations, the Mrs. Pollifax books could have been a new favorite series of mine. The plot was creative, the writing good, and Mrs. Pollifax quite memorable. But all things considered, I cannot recommend this book.