Black Beauty

Having very little to do with the classic Anna Sewell novel, this contemporary take on Black Beauty centers on an awkward, beautiful, and sensitive teen named Audry (Jennifer Mckenzie), who volunteers at an animal shelter and forms an attachment to an abused horse, Beauty. Determined to keep the physically and emotionally damaged stallion from being euthanized, Audry convinces her overprotective father (Luke Perry) to let her treat the horse at her grandfather's farm for a summer. Here, Beauty heals and learns to once again trust people, just in time to be entered in a 4-H contest that also gives Audry a chance to prove that she's not a loser. As Audry's grandpa, Bruce Davison is the best feature of this largely unexciting family film, effortlessly inhabiting a benevolent but plain-speaking authority figure. Optional. (T. Keogh)