The best thing in "Secretariat," the new movie from Walt Disney
Pictures, is John Malkovich. His wardrobe is out of Spike Jones and his
part is supposed to be Lucien Laurin, Secretariat's tight-lipped
trainer, but the way the role is written, Malkovich could just as well
be Wayne Lukas. He's got a clever answer for everything and he's as
droll as someone out of one of Noel Coward's drawing rooms. But while
Malkovich is entertaining, what he can't donate to "Secretariat" is
authenticity, something the film left in its other pants pocket. When
Secretariat swept the Triple Crown in 1973, I was there, and it's
impossible to sit through the picture without wondering why the
director, Randall Wallace, shot a script that had so many holes and
took so many liberties...
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