Miracle (2004)

Directed by Gavin O’Connor. Starring Kurt Russell, Noah Emmerich, Patricia Clarkson, Eddie Cahill, Michael Matenuto, Nathan West, Patrick O’Brien Demsey, Sean McCann, Kenneth Welsh, Kenneth Mitchell. [PG]

Agreeable but workmanlike chronicle of ice hockey coach Herb Brooks (Russell) assembling a team of talented, young amateurs to compete for the gold medal at the 1980 Winter Olympics against the heavily-favored, seemingly-unbeatable Soviet squad. Brooks stresses the strategy of players working together as a team, of conditioning and giving 100%, but the movie can’t find a way to persuasively show its effect off the ice or at game time, nor do we get to know any of the players in a meaningful way (an old rivalry between two of them is quashed pretty early, and the goalie is distracted by family tragedy, and that’s about it). Also, although the action on the ice is photographed fluidly and edited for speed, it never becomes exciting, certainly not as much as “nostalgic” TV coverage of the live event more than forty years ago. On the winning side, however, is a fine performance from the ever-reliable Russell, and respectable restraint when it comes to recycling the crowd-pleasing formula elements. Title is, of course, inspired by the famous Al Michaels call during the original television broadcast. Dedicated to Brooks, who died during production (“He never saw it. He lived it.”).

61/100