Review of Danielle Steel`s Palomino

Introduction

There are more than 250m copies of Danielle Steel`s books out there in no less than 28 languages. That`s a lot of romantic fiction and it`s this popularity which has led to the making of a lot of Danielle Steel TV movies. Palomino is one of 19 (yes 19!) Steel adaptations and all have garnered high ratings success in the US. Now we have to suffer from what amounts to nothing more than cheap daytime soap melodrama.

City girl meets rugged cowboy and falls in love, but wait, the cowboy is a bit intimidated by this successful woman and distances himself after a passionate clinch. As if that wasn`t bad enough, she has a riding accident, which puts her in a wheelchair, and now she`s got to deal with this too.

Video

American TV movies generally come with one aspect ratio, 1.33:1 (fullframe) and Palomino is no different. The details and colours are good with very slight levels of grain. The only drawback is that it looks like a TV movie more so than a feature film, reminiscent of an episode of Dallas.

Audio

The DD2.0 provides a functional soundtrack, which is all this film needs. Dialogue and music are clear from the front with nothing coming from the rear speakers. It works well enough though.

Features

Static and easy to navigate menus with pointless extras:

• Biography - Three static pages about Danielle Steel, not particularly interesting unless you like her books.

• Trailer (4:54) - Not so much a trailer for Palomino this trailer covers other Danielle Steel TV movies.

• Also Available - Why not try any of the other 18 Danielle Steel DVDs?

There are no subtitles. Palomino is packaged in a standard DVD keep case.

Conclusion

As soon as you see Danielle Steel herself introducing the film, you know you`re in trouble. Palomino is the equivalent of an extended episode of Dallas or Dynasty with soap characters and story.

The casting is competent and it doesn`t take a genius of a filmmaker to direct, but the story is just dull. Even as romantic stories go, you know from a mile off where this is going so there`s no point to watching it. Even the clichéd riding into the sunset is here. Add a riding accident where our plucky young woman is left paralysed and it just prolongs the agony of watching the film to the end.

Take this film away and put it down; that`s the nicest thing I can say about it. It takes a romantic view of cowboys riding the range and adds romance between a city woman and a hardcore cowboy (complete with well groomed moustache). It`s formulaic and tiring with nothing interesting and will probably only appeal to Danielle Steel readers. Having said that, I think this film should stay on TV.