Wild Hearts Can't Be Broken

This would be a great young girl's coming of age story if it weren't for the fact that it isn't. Based on a true story (with plenty of dramatic license, I'm sure), Wild Hearts Can't Be Broken stars newcomer Gabrielle Anwar as Sonora Webster, a strong-headed teenager who gets off to a rough start in the film. Before ten minutes pass, Sonora gets suspended from school, has her horse sold off, and is given the heave-ho by her aunt (Sonora's an orphan). Naturally, she goes off to answer an ad for a "diving girl" position in Doc Carver's (Cliff Robertson) travelling stunt show. Although rebuffed at first, Sonora perseveres, and pretty soon the Doc's son (Michael Schoeffling) begins to cast covetous glances in her direction. Basically, a diving girl's job is to leap onto the back of a horse and ride it 50 feet straight down into a pool of water. A nice visual feat that Sonora becomes quite adept at, until she becomes blind, and must relearn the trick. The problem with the film is that zero time is spent developing the characters; it simply skips from event to event. When Doc Carver--a main character--dies, all of about a minute is spent mourning him. In fact, the whole movie seems to have been designed for people with incredibly short attention spans. Every time a narrative hook is set, it's used within five minutes. And while the heroic ending is undeniably moving, we never get a chance to really know Sonora Webster, let alone any of the other characters, in this fast food movie. Not recommended. (R. Pitman)