A fairy tale refrain is “one day my prince will come.”
In RIDE LIKE A GIRL, that refrain takes on a reality.
As a little girl, Michelle Payne dreams of the impossible: winning the Melbourne Cup — horse-racing’s toughest two-mile race. It’s a dream that all jockeys have, but it has extra significance for Michelle as never in its 155 year history has the race been one with a sheila in the saddle.
The youngest of 10 children, Michelle is raised by single father Paddy. She leaves school at 15 to become a jockey and after early failures she finds her feet, but a family tragedy, followed by her own near fatal horse fall all but ends the dream.
But with the love of her dad and her brother Stevie, Michelle will not give up. Against all the medical advice, and the protests of her siblings, she rides on, and meets her mount, Prince of Penzance. Together they overcome impossible odds for a shot at the dream: a ride in the 2015 Melbourne Cup, at odds of 100 to 1. The rest is history.
Taking the reins of her first feature film as a director, Rachel Griffiths brings this inspiring story home with a spur of sentimentality and the whip-hand of a seasoned crafts person.
She has assembled a formidable field of performers – Teresa Palmer in the role of pony penchant Payne, Sam Neill as Payne patriarch, Paddy, and Sullivan Stapleton as trainer, Darren Weir. The film is stolen, however, by Michelle’s real life brother, Stevie, playing himself. Not only does he bring a wonderful verisimilitude to the film, he has an infectious joy and charm that’s a winner.
Martin McGrath’s cinematography is tip top especially capturing those crisp early morning track work shots and the bucolic beauty of Ballarat and surrounds.
Like any Australian film, RIDE LIKE A GIRL doesn’t draw well at the barrier. The competition from Hollywood studio films is insurmountable. However its connections are first class and its entry into the field in the month leading up to the Spring Racing Carnival and the running of the Melbourne Cup should see its stakes at the box office rise.
May the horse be with you.