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Review:
 This
film’s credits set the scene. There's a montage of the 1970s, from
the later landings on the Moon to Jimmy Carter’s notorious
"malaise" speech in 1979. The United States was on the verge of a
nervous breakdown, there was an energy crisis going on and the
nation was in the grip of buyer’s remorse over JC, who was at the
time getting a 24% popularity rating. What was needed was
something to lift our spirits, and as we now know, the Iranians
weren’t going to do it.
Disney excels in this sort of film. You can have all the
quality you want in sports films and still keep it down to PG or
even G, so director Gavin O?Connor and writer Eric Guggenheim have
come up with a simple, good for the whole family masterpiece. This
was not expected.
Herb Brooks(Kurt Russell) had a bit of a chip on his shoulder.
He’d been bumped off the 1960 Olympic hockey team at the last
minute and when he was offered the job of taking the coaching job
for the same team a generation later, he was possessed.
So we follow Brooks, his wife Patti(Patricia Clarkson), assistant
coach, Craig Patrick(Noah Emmerich) and sports pysician Doc
Nagobads(Kenneth Welsh) as the original "dream team" (Eddie
Cahill, Patrick O?Brien Demsey, Michael Mantenuto, Nathan West,
Kenneth Mitchell, Eric Peter-Kaiser, Bobby HansonJoseph Cure and
Billy Schneider, son of one of the actual teammates) is recruited,
trained and sent out on the road to Olympic glory.
This resembles a really good World War II movie, sort of like
"The Dirty Dozen" except we don’t have the standard ethnic
diversity and the Soviet national hockey team instead of the Nazi
army.
The structure of the film is such that it grabs you early and
never lets go, Guggenheim’s script is taut and fast-paced. Russell
gives the performance of his life and there’s a real chemistry
between him and Clarkson. Also, the guys who play the hockey
players have a real charisma about them although they don’t seem
stand out as individuals all that much.
The choreography is wonderful, and the hockey games are
lovingly and excitingly recreated. This is well worth the price of
a full ticket. Wow.
Eric Lurio
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