Destined to Ride – Pistachio (2018)

Directed by: Anna Elizabeth James | 86 minutes | adventure, family | Actors: Denise Richards, Madeline Carroll, Joey Lawrence, Nick Searcy, Amber Frank, Cassi Thomson, Grace Johnston, Manolo Gonzalez Vergara, Olivia Jordan, Connor McRaith, Joshua Marble, Kazumi Aihara

17-year-old Lilly (Madeline Carroll) has to spend the summer with her spiritual aunt in the countryside. Her father is quite a workaholic and her mother passed away a few years ago. At first, Lilly doesn’t really like the upcoming summer. She’d much rather hang out with her cheerleading friends. Once arrived at her aunt’s farm, it’s all not too bad. She quickly finds a group of new friends to hang out with and develops a special bond with one of her aunt’s horses, Pistachio. The warm summer goes more smoothly than expected until Lilly makes a bet with her aunt’s nasty neighbor.

‘Destined to Ride’ is a summery feel-good film especially suitable for young girls and boys who love horses. Especially the beautiful images of the rides of Lilly and Pistachio are beautifully and carefully filmed. Think of beautiful rolling landscapes, setting sun, drifting sand and long flowing hair and mane. In that respect, horse lovers can indulge themselves. In addition, the film shows the special bond between humans and animals, which gives animal lovers a pleasant warm and fuzzy feeling. Unfortunately, that’s pretty much all this movie has to offer.

The plot of ‘Destined to Ride’ is not exactly the most exciting. Very little happens for quite some time. You see a group of young people having fun. A girl has a very nice summer and can ride a horse better and better. The film only really gets going in the last fifteen minutes when Lilly makes a bet with her aunt’s neighbor. To win the bet she must win a horse race. But this outcome isn’t much of a surprise either. It seems as if the makers were afraid to look up the drama a little more here and there, while there had been enough opportunity for it. Processing the death of her mother or the fact that her father would not pay any attention to her (something that is often mentioned, but which we don’t really see or notice) would have been nice entrances for this. Even with a potential “love interest” nothing is done. Now Lilly is actually a pretty boring character who sees little to no growth during the movie.

Despite the fact that ‘Destined to Ride’ should clearly be a loving family film, it itself is very well-behaved for this genre and therefore even a bit boring. The beautiful images of horse riding may be good for horse lovers, but it is not enough to make an interesting film.