Miracle makes audiences believe

Miracle is not a great movie, nor will it be nominated for any Oscars next year. However, this film is still a solid, well-shot and well-acted piece of family entertainment with plenty to offer audiences of all ages.

The movie recounts the fabled US defeat of communist Russia's hockey team in the 1980 Winter Olympics. Viewed as underdogs without a chance of even making it to the medal round of the tournament, saying Team USA's upset victory was one of the most remarkable moments in sports history is not an understatement.

Kurt Russell plays Herb Brooks, the team's hard-line, no-nonsense coach who will stop at nothing to win the gold medal. Brooks was cut from the 1960 US Olympic hockey team one week before the final game, and the memory of coming so close to a medal has haunted him ever since. Now, 20 years later, Brooks is back to settle the score.

Team USA is made up of, as the movie's antagonistic sports announcers hammer in, a bunch of college kids who've never played professional hockey and hardly know each other. Played by a cast of unknowns, the hockey players include goalie Jim Craig (Eddie Cahill), team captain Mike Eruzione (Patrick Demsey) and other stars such as Rob McClanahan (Nathan West) and Jack O'Callahan (Michael Mantenuto). These actors all do a good job and look their parts – a scrawny group of amateur hockey players without a snowball's chance in hell.

Yet coach Brooks is determined to overcome the incredible odds against the US and defeat the Russians – a team of seasoned veterans who have played together for fifteen years and won the gold every year since 1964. To that end, he pushes his players to their limits and well beyond, subjecting them to seven months of physically and emotionally grueling training. Almost sadistically at times, he puts his team through hours of drills so fatiguing that the athletes collapse at the end.

Finally the day arrives, and the climatic battle between Teams USA and USSR, capitalism and communism, the Free World and the Iron Curtain is fought on the ice. Or at least that's how titanic the movie builds up the game to be. The suspense created during the game is masterful, lacking only one ingredient – uncertainty. The historical outcome of the game – a massive US upset victory – is so well known that the final contest lacks that last bit of drama.

As a whole however, Miracle is a very good movie. There are parts, especially at the beginning, where the action lags, and there are a few side elements such as Brooks' losing touch with his family that dilute the main plot of the movie. But all of these flaws are more than made up for by the stunning hockey sequences. Filmed artfully and powerfully, the scenes on the ice more than do justice to the intensity and fluidity of the game. The camera glides over the rink, following players and the puck as gracefully as if it were mounted on skates itself. Every check and bone-jarring slam into the boards reverberates through the theater. Miracle is superbly filmed and pushes sports movies to a whole new level.

The movie is also not without its flaws. Coach Brooks definitely lays on at least one too many sentimental, syrupy 'let's go team!' speeches. The flow of the movie is extremely predictable as well – training montage, inspirational speech by Brooks, stunning game footage, ensuing celebration of victory or mourning of loss. This sequence repeats again and again until the movie's final victory celebration. An unseen sports announcer describes the hockey scenes while the team plays, which is a double-edged sword. The commentary makes the games blessedly easy to follow, which is important in scenes where 20 players the audience has hardly been introduced to are all on the ice. However, the announcer also makes a slew of annoying comments about the game and feels compelled to remind the audience every ten seconds what an underdog team the US is.

Miracle is definitely worth catching, especially during the pre-Oscar lull in releases. The movie contains enough stirring hockey scenes and real human emotion to interest kids and teens as well as their parents who probably remember watching the real game.