Miracle

Miracle's movie poster

“Ducks fly together! QUACK! QUACK!” Sorry, wrong movie. When watching Miracle, I couldn’t help but be reminded of The Mighty Ducks. The plots were very similar, with two former hockey players taking a motley crew of kids and coaching them into the greatest hockey teams ever to grace the ice. Both films also finished with the teams facing a former ghost of the coach's, and of course, emerging victorious.

Miracle starred Kurt Russell as Herb Brooks, a hockey player turned coach from St. Paul, Minnesota. Brooks was drafted to coach the United States Hockey Team for the Lake Placid, New York’s 1980 Olympic Games. Hockey stars from all over the country flew to a week of training, where Brooks picked the best team of twenty to play in the 13th Olympic Games. Many coaches would have selected 20 all-stars to play, however, Brooks had a different strategy. He didn’t necessarily want to pick the 20 best players, but the 20 players with the most chemistry who would make the best team. Brooks cut some extremely talented players, and his final selection, mostly comprised of Minnesotans and Bostonians, caused an uproar amongst fellow coaches, who were all for picking 20 standouts.

Brooks, however, felt confident in his choices and was determined to win. The plot thickens when we learned that Brooks himself was supposed to be a player on the United States Team in 1960 in Squaw Valley, California. He was cut at the last minute and the team, sans Brooks, won the eighth Olympic Games. Much of Brooks’ drive to win came from his own experience–or lack thereof–being an Olympian.

In the end, all of the hard work paid off and after a series of wins and one loss against the Soviet Union, Team United States struck back and beat the Soviets in a fight for the gold medal. A true Cold War victory.

Miracle, of course, is based on a true story. You know that the U.S. is going to win, no matter how much of a long shot.Miracle was a typical feel-good film; extremely cheesy and predictable.

Even though the movie was nearly two-and-a-half hours long, I left the theater barely knowing any of the characters. I remembered a few names and the fact that there was a University of Minnesota/Boston University rivalry in the past, but that was it as far as the players go. But while the screenwriters failed to develop characters, the casting directors did a great job with casting Kurt Russell as Herb Brooks. Russell did a great job becoming Brooks, right down to the adopted Midwestern twang.

While Miracle was short of miraculous, Kurt Russell saved it from being potentially worse. All in all, I’d say Miracle was just okay.

What did you think of Miracle? Let us know!