Miracle (2004)

I had started watching Happy as Lazzaro, but the first maybe half hour didn't grab me. When I learned that it had a strange setup and an anticapitalist message, I lost interest further. Giving up, I chose this replacement in a bit of a rush.

In 1979, former Olympic hockey player Herb Brooks (Kurt Russell) gets to coach the U.S. Olympic hockey team. There is little time before the 1980 winter games, so he sees fit to take a hard approach, which doesn't make him popular in the short term. He also doesn't favor the same player picks as others, believing that individual athletic skill matters less than who will work well together.

Few movies put this much emphasis on a coach. We don't learn much about the players, most of whom do not have remotely famous actors. A few get into personal conflicts or performance-threatening injuries, but they have little impact on the shape of the plot. I'd almost give more importance to Herb's wife, Patti (Patricia Clarkson), which may be just as well, because she's the only woman credited on the Wikipedia page.

Some people call this one of the best sports flicks ever, if not the best. From what I can tell, the best thing about it is the cinematography: We get camera shots like I haven't seen in any televised hockey game. Not that I've watched much of those.

I split my viewing over two nights, and not primarily because it was getting late. Even if you never heard about the "Miracle on Ice," you can see the ending a mile away. Very little about the story approaches unpredictability. I kept looking away from the screen when there wasn't a game on.

Maybe I would have been better off sticking with HaL after all. At least that sounds halfway distinctive.