My 10 year old daughter and I saw the movie last night and it was amazing. We should have waited to see it with my husband who was working. He "met" Secretariat when he was in grade school in Kentucky and said he'd never seen a horse with so much personality. We have a picture of Secretariat in a field with the sunset - just like one of the scenes they showed in the movie. I LOVED it and would see it again.
I thought the movie was good - not excellent. The plot was fairly simple, although it certainly followed the storylines of the HBO show. I just felt I could have written it and that it was very predictable. I enjoyed it, but not all the graphic scenes of "Dante the next door neighbor". I get why it was necessary, but it was a bit much for my personal tastes and made me uncomfortable. I'm glad I saw it first. My teens (17 & 19) don't watch the show - but I'm certainly not going to encourage them to see it. Overall it was good, not great and it was definitely over-hyped in terms of marketing.