"Hidalgo" is "Indiana Jones" without the wit and swagger that made the Harrison Ford adventure series so memorable. Viggo Mortensen's internal clock has always been set to either simmering or laconic, and as a lead in this movie he's about dynamic as Bob Dylan. Mortensen plays Frank Hopkins, a cavalry officer-turned-horse-racer in late 1890s Arabia. Weighted down with the memory of the Wounded Knee massacre - it forced him to leave the Army - Hopkins is a jaded, slightly drunken cowboy courting death with about as much purpose as anything else while he stars with his titular Mustang in Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show. An emissary of an Arabian sheik sees one of the shows in Boston, and Hopkins is summoned to the desert to compete in a 3,000-mile race across it with Hidalgo, a small runt compared the black Arabian stallions raised in Middle East. The sheik (Omar Sharif) has a quiet fascination with Hopkins. So does the sheik's lovely tomboy daughter Jazira (Zuleikha Robinson). And an English heiress (Louise Lombard) whose mare has a genuine shot at winning the contest."Hidalgo," at 133 minutes, has more than enough time to explore the "Ocean of Fire" race, Hopkins' three main competitors, the social mores of pre-modern Arabia - not much has changed since - and a subplot involving the sheik's backstabbing nephew who covets a certain horse in the race and kidnaps Jazira for ransom. These scenes most clearly mirror the swordplay of swashbucklers, as Hopkins rescues the princess from one of those sand fortresses in the desert.Joe Johnston ("Jurassic Park III") competently directs, fusing CGI (a sandstorm, a locust plague) and desert landscape photography. It's no "Lawrence of Arabia" or "Beau Travail," but it's more impressive than another recent film, "The Four Feathers," and a shot that circles behind Sharif as the flaps of his tent are opened to the world is particularly dynamic. There are enough dopey scenes to nix "Hidalgo" as a mature film, and yet, for kids it's slightly dark. Slaves, Wounded Knee, grisly deaths by way spike pits, quicksand, heat-induced hallucinations. "Hidalgo" means to straddle the fence between fear and excitement - the edge-of-your-seat effect. But unlike "Indiana Jones," or even "The Mummy" series, the movie isn't funny or light. The casting of Mortensen, and Mortensen's approach, is to blame. Was this the right role for him after an epic five years with "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy? He seems worn out. Mortensen could have felt pressure to bring gravitas to the picture - before its release some history buffs clucked this film was a wholly inaccurate retelling of Hopkins' life, both in event and characterization - but the result is a numbing humility in the face of adventure. The very final scene of "Hidalgo" offers Hopkins a kind of peace, but two hours with this guy is a more somber journey than it needs to be.