Ride Like A Girl: Neon NZ Film Review

The story of Michelle Payne, the first female jockey to win Flemington in 2015, the horse race which stops Australia should on paper be a home run.

In theory, an underdog story, a tale of female empowerment and of triumph in the face of adversity, it has it all as it goes into the starting gate, promising a powerful start and an uplifting final furlong.

But what emerges from Ride Like A Girl is a story given such a light touch that very little rarely lands as it should, despite the stoic work from Palmer, the reliable gruff from Neill as the emotionally stunted father and Stevie Payne as the real-life brother, Stevie.

The trouble is that Griffiths keeps flitting from one sequence of Payne's life to another, hardly allowing anything to resonate as it should. Equally the chauvinism and sexism that was thrown Payne's way warrants only the briefest of mentions in proceedings and certainly doesn't do much to increase the drama stakes.

Where the film is more triumphant is in its execution of the horse riding sequences, capturing both the intensity and the tension of the race from within the galloping cluster. It means that in these sequences alone, there's a palpable sense of stakes and tension.

And the family story at the heart of the Payne story is the one that beats a little louder than normal - certainly Stevie Payne brings real pathos to his role, and never once does the script play to an audience's easy expectations.

Ride Like A Girl does feel, at times, like a TV movie writ large but it lacks the conviction of its desired inspirations, preferring instead to plough a conventional and extremely safe path. Ultimately, because of that decision at a script and directorial level, the film rarely raises its head from the pack and disappoints what should have been an easy win.