The triumph of the U.S. hockey Olympics team over a heavily favored Soviet squad is among the greatest underdog stories in sports history. It’s also one of the best known, making it a challenge for any filmmaker who’s trying to chronicle the team’s improbable march towards glory. Director Gavin O’Connor and screenwriter Eric Guggenheim do a competent job of retelling the 1980 story in Miracle, but there’s something missing. Viewers should be cheering — or weeping — during films of this sort, but Miracle only succeeds at reminding us of the team’s accomplishments. It doesn’t move us.
The film focuses on coach Herb Brooks (Kurt Russell) and his efforts to assemble the perfect chemistry among his 20 young players and teach them a new style of play that emphasized aggressive teamwork over individual effort. As expected, ego problems arise among the players and old scores need to be settled. Though we get to know goalie Jim Craig (Eddie Cahill), team captain Mike Eruzione (Patrick Demsey), and slap shot artist Jack O’Callahan (Michael Mantenuto), little time is spent fleshing out the other players, making it difficult for us to become emotionally invested in them. Equally frustrating, we’re never given a sense of what it’s like to be in the rink. This is a grievous oversight that proves to be the difference between making a thrilling entertainment and an adequate movie.
At one point during the team’s grueling practice sessions, Coach Brooks tells
his prospective players that if they only give 99 percent on the ice, it won’t
be good enough to make the team. In the end, Miracle does just that —
it skates by.
Lovable drifter Jack Ryan (Owen Wilson) has run afoul of crooked
real estate developer Ray Ritchie (Gary Sinise) after roughing up one of his boys
(Vinnie Jones). Jack’s gumption attracts Nancy (Sara Foster), Ritchie’s mistress.
She’s out to screw her sugar daddy and thinks Jack’s the perfect sap to help her
scheme. Seems she knows the whereabouts of $200,000 that Ritchie has set aside
to pay off some local mobsters and if that cash were to go missing, the developer
would find himself paying a visit to a volcano-top property. Jack is leery of
the whole plan but finds himself drawn to Nancy, despite a friendly warning from
Walter (Morgan Freeman), the local justice of the peace, to steer clear of her
and a violent threat from Ritchie’s flunky Bob Jr. (Charlie Sheen) to do the same.
Amazingly, this strong cast manages to sleepwalk through
this adaptation of Elmore Leonard’s The Big Bounce. Granted, the material
isn’t Shakespeare, but it does require that we invest something in the characters.
I got the impression that Wilson and the film crew focused on wrapping up shooting
early in order to hit the beaches.
That’s not to say The Big Bounce is a bad time.
The characters, though sketchy, are pleasant. And the gorgeous Hawaiian scenery
makes me want to call my travel agent. But in the end, I don’t care who ended
up with the cash, who ended up alive or dead, or who ended up screwing whom.
What other critics
are saying…
Along Came Polly [PG-13] Ben Stiller plays a man
who’s afraid of risk. But he makes his living analyzing risk, gets involved
in a risky romance, and cheats on his wife.“A movie that sets its comedy
bar too low for the talents involved.” (Kirk Honeycutt, Hollywood Reporter)
ShowPlace West, ShowPlace East
Barbershop 2: Back in Business [PG-13] Spend another
day with the crew at Calvin’s [Ice Cube] barbershop on Chicago’s South Side.
“Cube is still adorable, but the potentially poppin’ battle between the shop
and big-box competitor Nappy Cuts gets obscured by sloppy chronology and flat,
cartoonish politicos.” (Laura Sinagra, Village Voice) Parkway Pointe,
ShowPlace West
The Big Bounce [PG-13] Surfer-drifter-con man Jack
Ryan (Owen Wilson) goes to Hawaii and lands a job caring for Walter Crewes (Morgan
Freeman), a judge on the island. ShowPlace West, ShowPlace East
Big Fish [PG-13] Son learns more about his dying
father by reliving his father’s stories and myths. “Big Fish is Tim Burton’s
masterpiece.” (Glenn Whipp, L.A. Daily News) ShowPlace West
The Butterfly Effect [R] Evan (Ashton Kutcher),
mourning the death of his girlfriend, finds he can go back in time and change
the future. But every change he makes goes wrong. “Dreary and overfamiliar.”
(Dennis Lim, Village Voice) ShowPlace West,
ShowPlace East
Calendar Girls [PG-13] The women of the Rylstone
Women’s Institute in North Yorkshire drop everything for a good cause. Stars
Helen Mirren and Julie Waters. “A grown-up comedy that is warm, winning and
sexy.” (Ray Bennett, Hollywood Reporter) ShowPlace West
Catch That Kid [PG] Katie loves to climb, but
her father’s forbidden her because of an accident he had that paralyzed him.
Desperate for money for an operation to help her dad, Katie and her two best
friends plan to rob the bank where her mother works. “A stale, overbudgeted
child-empowerment fantasy that’s every bit as excruciating as the director’s
previous work.” (Ben Kenigsberg, Village Voice) ShowPlace West, ShowPlace
East
Girl with a Pearl Earring [PG-13] Griet (Scarlett
Johansson) is a peasant girl who is forced to work as a maid in the home of
the painter Johannes Vermeer. She eventually becomes the model for what becomes
one of his most famous works. “Visually, the film is breathtaking. And Johansson,
while not looking much like the Girl with the Pearl, does achieve a Vermeer
— like sublimity, against which the ill winds of 1600s Holland blow.” (John
Anderson, Newsday) Parkway Pointe
The Gospel of John [PG-13] The story of Jesus,
narrated by Christopher Plummer. “Feels like the longest Sunday school class
ever.” (Chris Hewitt, St. Paul Pioneer Press) Parkway Pointe
In America [PG-13] Eleven-year-old Christy (Sarah
Bolger), a child wise beyond her years, tells a coming of age story story about
an Irish couple (Samantha Morton, Paddy Considine) who try to find their way
in the U.S. “If the film is manipulative, at least it’s subtly manipulative.”
(Chris Vognar, Dallas Morning News) Parkway Pointe
Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King [PG-13]
Final part of trilogy, as hobbits Frodo and Sam journey to Mount Doom in Mordor.
“As a model for how to bring substance, authenticity and insight to the biggest
of adventure yarns, this trilogy will not soon, if ever, find its equal.” (Kenneth
Turan, Los Angeles Times) ShowPlace West
The Perfect Score [PG-13] Six teenagers from diverse
backgrounds conspire to break into an SAT testing center to steal the answers.“Christensen and most of the young men are barely there.” (Ed Park, Village
Voice) ShowPlace West, ShowPlace East
Something’s Gotta Give [PG-13] Fifty-something Erica
Barry (Diane Keaton) plays reluctant host to her daughter’s 60-something boyfriend,
Harry (Jack Nicholson), and sparks fly. “Something’s Gotta Give can be
formulaic, but watching the incandescent Nicholson and Keaton, all loose and
funny and sharing jokes about reading glasses, is a rare treat.” (Eleanor Ringel
Gillespie, Atlanta Journal-Constitution) ShowPlace West
Win a Date with Tad Hamilton [PG-13] A small-town
girl wins a date with a male celebrity. When the date goes better than expected,
a love triangle forms between the girl, the male celebrity, and the girl’s best
friend. “The movie’s got enough genuine wit to keep it a notch above most contemporary
comedies.” (Philip Wuntch, Dallas Morning News) ShowPlace West
You Got Served [PG-13] Documents the competitive
world of street dancing.Not reviewed. Parkway Pointe, ShowPlace East
This article appears in Feb 5-11, 2004.
