Unabashed in its sentimentality and saddled with every imaginable horse-movie cliche, Dreamer: Inspired by a True Story makes Seabiscuit look like a documentary.

And yet it feels like a higher echelon of feel-good family film, thanks to solid performances from a veteran cast that includes Kurt Russell, Kris Kristofferson, Elisabeth Shue, Luis Guzman, Ken Howard and Dakota Fanning.

Yes, we've included Fanning in that category, even though she's just 11. Having performed for half her life and co-starring this year alone alongside Robert De Niro and Tom Cruise, she again shows she's an actress of astonishing maturity and intelligence. There is no child-star cuteness with Fanning; she seems to lose herself instinctively in every role she plays, and she's always natural, always believable.

She even manages to wring some genuine emotion from her scenes with Russell, who plays her father - scenes that could have been predictably melodramatic.

Predictability is the pervasive theme from John Gatins, who wrote the script and directs for the first time. (He previously wrote the by-the-numbers sports movies Summer Catch, Hard Ball and Coach Carter.)

Russell stars as longtime horse trainer Ben Crane, whose relationship with his family has been deteriorating as he loses pieces of his farm, bit by bit. Nevertheless, his daughter, Cale, wants to be just like him.