DramaAdventure

Lean on Pete

- You can’t get anywhere on your own

Charley Thompson, a teenager living with his single father, gets a summer job working for horse trainer Del Montgomery. Bonding with an aging racehorse named Lean on Pete, Charley is horrified to learn he is bound for slaughter, and so he steals the horse, and the duo embark on an odyssey across the new American frontier.

Release Date : 2018-04-06

Language :English

Adult : false

Status : Released

Production Company : The BureauFilm4 Productions

Production Country : United Kingdom

Alternative Titles :

Cast

Character Name : Charley

Original Name : Charlie Plummer

Gender : Male

Character Name : Lynn

Original Name : Amy Seimetz

Gender : Female

Character Name : Ray

Original Name : Travis Fimmel

Gender : Male

Character Name : Del

Original Name : Steve Buscemi

Gender : Male

Character Name : Race Announcer

Original Name : Jason Beem

Gender : Male

Character Name : Lynn's Husband

Original Name : Tolo Tuitele

Gender : Male

Character Name : Cop 1

Original Name : Ayanna Berkshire

Gender : Female

Character Name : Cop 2

Original Name : Connor Brenes

Gender : Male

Character Name : Nurse

Original Name : Kurt Conroyd

Gender : Male

Character Name : Bonnie

Original Name : Chloë Sevigny

Gender : Female

Character Name : Old Timer

Original Name : Dennis Fitzpatrick

Gender : Male

Character Name : Portland Downs Security Guard

Original Name : Rusty Tennant

Gender : Male

Character Name : Ruby

Original Name : Julia Prud'homme

Gender : Female

Character Name : Mitch

Original Name : Jason Rouse

Gender : Male

Character Name : Dallas

Original Name : Lewis Pullman

Gender : Male

Character Name : Mike

Original Name : Justin Rain

Gender : Male

Character Name : Mr. Kendall

Original Name : Bob Olin

Gender : Male

Character Name : Laurie

Original Name : Teyah Hartley

Gender : Female

Character Name : Woman Driver

Original Name : Dana Millican

Gender : Female

Character Name : Desert Officer

Original Name : Heath Lourwood

Gender : Male

Character Name : Silver

Original Name : Steve Zahn

Gender : Male

Character Name : Martha

Original Name : Rachael Perrell Fosket

Gender : Female

Character Name : Warehouse Man

Original Name : Joseph Bertót

Gender : Male

Character Name : Santiago

Original Name : Frank Gallegos

Gender : Male

Character Name : Bob

Original Name : Francisco Diego Garcia

Gender : Male

Character Name : Aunt Margy

Original Name : Alison Elliott

Gender : Female

Reviews

Stephen Campbell

@Bertaut

2021-06-23

**_Decent enough, but not a patch on Haigh's previous work_** > _I feel everything I do is related to that sense of loneliness and that longing to not be alone. I think all of us spend most of our time feeling alone and we find ways to disguise our loneliness - whether it's relationships, a job or whatever it is - because we know that our central state of being is probably to feel alone. For this story that's especially true: Charley spends a lot of time running away, he leaves the frame and disappears. I think we're constantly battling with loneliness, finding things that make us feel bet__ter, striving for things that we think are going to make us happy and then when they fail to do so, striving for the next thing to try and repeating the process over and over. It's just our basic biological need that keeps us going._ - Andrew Haigh; "_Lean On Pete_: In Conversation With Filmmaker Andrew Haigh"; _Candid_ (May 5, 2018) 15-year-old Charley Thompson (Charlie Plummer) lives with his father, Ray (Travis Fimmel), who is drinking himself into an early grave. Finding work caring for an ageing racehorse named Lean on Pete, Charley is devastated when he learns that Pete's owner, Del Montgomery (Steve Buscemi), is planning to slaughter the animal. Determined to save his friend, Charley steals Pete, and the two set out on an odyssey across the modern American frontier. Fans of writer/director Andrew Haigh will know his unassailable talent for what one might label unsentimental emotionalism; his films deal with intensely emotional situations without lapsing into Speilbergian fawnishness. And, although compared to the excellent _Weekend_ (2011), and the masterful _45 Years_ (2015), _Lean on Pete_ is a touch melodramatic, Haigh's talent for allowing character and theme to rise organically to the surface through quiet moments of introspection is still very much to the fore. So why not a higher score? Adapted from Willy Vlautin's 2010 novel of the same name, the biggest problem with the film is that things are laid on too thick; Charley is very much a Job figure, and suffers such a litany of misfortunes that one fully expects him to be diagnosed with terminal cancer. Similarly, the pseudo-allegorical nature of the characters he encounters is too on-the-nose for the realistic _milieu_ Haigh has crafted. Part state-of-the-nation address, part _bildungsroman_, it's worth a look, but is ultimately lacking a satisfying thematic through-line.