Ride Like A Girl

While formulaic, at times cheesy, and avoiding much of the controversy that swirls around the racing industry, it's big on determination, grit and passion.

This is play-to-the-bleachers entertainment, loaded with Hallmark sentiment and configured with an atmospheric integrity a cut above a soft drink commercial.

Even with Payne's plight as a woman in a vastly male-dominated realm repeatedly thrust to the fore, the film remains general and formulaic.

As for Ride Like a Girl's all-important racetrack sequences, they are passable enough, but not quite as exhilarating as first-time director Rachel Griffiths and her team have been making out while promoting the movie.

Rachel Griffiths directs this handsome biopic about Melbourne Cup-winning jockey Michelle Payne with a steady hand - and one eye on the finish line.

What interests Griffiths most is the Payne family and the film is at its best when concentrating on the dynamics of this close-knit clan. It's heartening and it's fun but Payne herself remains slightly out of focus.