Miracle
Cast
Kurt Russell .... Herb Brooks
Patricia Clarkson .... Patty Brooks
Noah Emmerich .... Craig Patrick
Sean McCann .... Walter Bush
Kenneth Welsh .... Doc Nagobads
Directed by
Gavin O'Connor
Rater #2 has description and review.
Rater #1
Has Not Seen Movie
Rater #2
5/10. I don't really understand Disney's viewpoint of sports movies. Their
three main ones, Remember the Titans, The Rookie, and now Miracle,
are all similar and different. All of them have underdogs that come
up from below to win, but each has a separate quality to them, which
I will get to later.
Coach Herb Brooks (Kurt Russell), who was taken out right before the
1960 Olympics, where the USA won the gold medal in hockey, is hired
to coach the 1980 Olympic team. He takes 21 "rag-tag misfits" and
tries to put them together as a team to defeat the previously
unbeatable Soviet team. Will they be able to do it? Well, considering
the title of the movie is Miracle, and it wouldn't be a miracle if
the people who have won for the last twenty years won....
Remember the Titans worked because it dealt with more than the sport;
it had racial issues added to it, adding another layer to it. Also,
the clich� of "rag-tag misfits coming together to win the big game"
worked in that movie, because it focused on general characters, while
in Miracle, there wasn't really anything below the surface. Eric
Guggenheim's debut script tries to borrow off of other sports movies
by attempting to have both interesting subplots involving the coach
AND the players...sadly, neither of them work out.
The Rookie was great because it showed the protagonist's inner
conflict. While Brooks didn't really have any inner conflicts,
anything involving the coach was barely fleshed out, and just
whatever information we needed was given randomly. It's obvious that
Miracle "borrowed" from those movies, but it's nowhere near as good
as they are.
Russell is great, though, contrasting the rest of the movie. As the
hard-as-nails coach, this might be the performance to really put him
into the public's eye. Although the script doesn't put any backstory
for him, it's obvious that Russell put hard work into portraying this
character. Patricia Clarkson is wasted as his wife, who seems upset
that her husband is always away, but name a recent movie in which
Clarkson plays someone who isn't upset. All of the people who play
the hockey players do what they need to do: skate.
I suppose Disney had trouble keeping this movie at a PG. Because
whatever fight scenes there were, they were extremely tame. It looked
like two figure skaters walking around each other. I don't exactly
call that "rough sports action". On the other hand, this movie had
way too many uses of the word "hell", it's probably just Guggenheim's
favorite word. Although I'm not a big sports fan, I enjoyed some of
the hockey action. It's not exciting, because it's obvious who wins,
but it's fun to watch.
If you go to see the overlong Miracle (in which 30 minutes could have
easily been taken out), see it for Russell's performance, or just
sneak into it at the end where most of the hockey action is, because
there's nothing for the first hour and a half that's that good.
Rated PG for language and some rough sports action.
Running time: ? minutes
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