Powerful, beautiful and intimate This was fantastic, a very powerful & intimate movie, beautiful cinematography and kinda heartbreaking. Follows Brady Blackburn, a young cowboy facing an identity crisis after suffering a near fatal head injury on the rodeo circuit and being told that he can never ride again.
For the most part this is a character study as Brady struggles to find himself; trying jobs outside of the circuit for the first time in his life, hanging with his friends, spending time with his autistic sister and his buddy in the rehab center, his father sells his horse, its a struggle.
There are moments during this movie when you think wow these unknowns are acting there ass's off. Is that girl really mentally challenged, is the guy in the rehab really brain damaged, am I seeing a man break a horse in real time? Yes they are acting, but most of the characters here are playing versions of themselves that's why its so real, very clever. The director does a fantastic job of pulling emotions and scenes out of non professionals.
The characters are also multifaceted, you start out thinking the dad is going to be the antagonist, the mean guy, or the drunk guy, well he is both of these things but he's also supportive and worries terribly about his son. None of the characters in this are Hollywood's version of or following a cookie cutter character formula, very refreshing.
In the beginning we get a close up of a horses eye, late in the film there is a closeup of Brady's eye, they are the same, they feel the same, just a beautiful film.