Big Miracle

Big Miracle - Dir. Ken Kwapis (2012)

Big Miracle is based on the 1989 non-fiction book, Freeing the Whales: How the Media Created the World's Greatest Non-Event by Tom Rose, which in turn was based on the real-life events surrounding Operation Breakthrough. In the previous year, three gray whales became trapped by ice near the coastal town of Point Barrow, Alaska. The story went viral before there ever was such a thing as news programs across the country picked it up. Universal's Big Miracle is the largely fictionalized version of the international efforts to rescue these poor creatures.

John Krasinski stars as Adam Carlson, a news reporter in Barrow with aspirations of moving on up to bigger markets in the lower 48 states. He's the first to report on a family of whales, who have been nicknamed Fred, Wilma, and Bamm Bamm. The baby isn't Pebbles because he's a boy, you see. The whales are surrounded by ice and will die if they don't get free. When everybody from Tom Brokaw to Dan Rather run Adam's story, Barrow is flooded with journalists and folks from all walks of life hoping to lend a hand. Most of them have their own selfish reasons for joining in.

Oil executive J.W. McGraw (Ted Danson), who sees the rescue as good P.R. and a gateway to open a wildlife refuge for drilling. White House aide Kelly Myers (Vinessa Shaw) looks to polish the legacy of the Reagan administration while building momentum for a run by Vice-President Bush. Both have tasked Col. Scott Boyer (Dermot Mulroney) of the National Guard to tow a hover barge from one of McGraw's stations via helicopter. Boyer is just following orders and doesn't care much about the whales, especially since they aren't killer whales. One of the few to contribute out of the goodness of her own heart is Rachel Kramer (Drew Barrymore), a Greenpeace activist and Adam's former girlfriend. Soon, the townsfolk, the people of the Inupiat tribe, and even the Russians form an unlikely alliance to save the trio of whales.

Big Miracle comes to us from director Ken Kwapis, who previously helmed the ensemble rom-com He's Just Not That Into You and the tween-lit adaptation The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, is used to juggling a myriad of storylines. He does so again to the detriment of Big Miracle, which is bogged down by too many superfluous subplots. There's a love triangle brewing between Adam, Rachel, and a big city reporter played by Kristen Bell as well as another love story involving Col. Boyer and Kelly Myers. Newcomer Ahmaogak Sweeney appears as an Inupiat boy named Nathan. His narration bookends the film, but he's a minor character at best.

Screenwriters Jack Amiel and Michael Berger have drawn their cast of characters in very broad strokes. Everyone is earnest and one-dimensional. John Krasinski fares the worst. The funnyman from The Office is a white bread bore as the lead protagonist. Ted Danson's oil exec seems as if he's mainly there as a counterpoint to the all the conservative pundits complaining about the portrayal of big business in films such as The Muppets and The Lorax. On the other hand, Drew Barrymore's Rachel represents all the worst of stereotypes of the granola munching eco-movement. She's a heartfelt firebrand, but also pedantic and myopic. She's more than willing to pain the Inupiat tribe as a bunch of whale slaughtering backwoods barbarians. According to the film, they're merely salt of the earth (or snow) people ready to dispense sage advice when necessary to plot advancement.

The true miracle of Big Miracle is the wealth of supporting actors that work diligently to keep the picture from completely sinking into the icy depths. Stephen Root plays the Alaskan governor, who is initially dismissive of the whale rescue until it captures the public eye. John Michael Higgins is funny as a smarmy anchorman. Rob Riggle and James LeGros are highlights as a pair of brothers from Minnesota, who arrive with a de-icing machine of their own invention. It's as if they made a wrong turn on their way to the set of Fargo. Also, be on the look out for Kathy Baker, Bruce Altman, Shea Whigham, Jonathan Slavin, and Tim Blake Nelson.

Big Miracle was released in February during the blasé months of the Hollywood release schedule where it earned a paltry $24.7 million worldwide. Perhaps, the world has grown too cynical for a simplistic, heartwarming tale. Is there anything miraculous to be found in Big Miracle? No, but it is wholesome, family-friendly entertainment.

Rating: * ½ (*****)

Going the Distance

Going the Distance - Dir. Nanette Burstein (2010)

Is there a genre more asinine than the modern romantic comedy? I don't have anything against the rom-com in general; I just have an aversion to the copious amounts of crap churned out by studio execs and filmmakers who seem to construct from a stock set of elements. Going the Distance attempts to change up the staid formula while still incorporating frequent clichés with an Apatow-style sense of lowbrow humor.

Justin Long is Garrett, a low-level talent scout for a rinky dink record label in New York City. He's just been dumped by his girlfriend (Leighton Meester) and decides to go out on the town with his buddies Box (Jason Sudeikis) and Dan (It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia's Charlie Day). He meets Erin (Drew Barrymore), an aspiring journalist, over a game of Centipede. She wants to keep the relationship light because she's only in the city temporarily as a summer intern for the fictional New York Sentinel. However, Garrett doesn’t want to end things so quickly even after Erin has takes a job in San Francisco. The young lovers attempt to make it work long distance via text messages, Skype, and a very awkward session of phone sex. The usual insecurities and frustrations begin creeping in to threaten their relationship.

Going the Distance is the first produced script by Geoff LaTulippe who wrote it after learning of producer Dave Neustadter's own long distance relationship. LaTulippe tries to address the poor economy with Erin and Garrett unable to scrap the funds to fly out to see each other while working in dying industries. The film also marks the first narrative picture from documentarian Nanette Burstein who directed The Kid Stays in the Picture and American Teen. For the most part, Burstein's direction is perfectly pedestrian though it didn't need to be anything more. Some shots during a dating montage do have a documentary feel turning the audience into mere observers.

Some think that real-life couples don't translate well to the screen, but Long and Barrymore have good chemistry together. Both play characters that are merely extensions of themselves and their previous characters, Long as the wise-cracking geek and Barrymore as the free-spirit. Christina Applegate brings the funny as Erin's overprotective sister with the understated and dry wit of Jim Gaffigan as her husband.

At the very least, Going the Distance avoids the usual contrivances that come up as setbacks. One's uptight, one's spontaneous. How will it ever work out? Yet, the movie is still cluttered with the ubiquitous detritus that comes with your average romantic comedy. There's the obligatory airport scene where the man rushes through the terminal to catch his lady love although, this one takes place at the end of the first act rather than the climax. Sudeikis and Day fulfill the roles of the protagonist's wacky best friends. The humor fails to elicit anything as slight as a chuckle or a smirk. There's a labored slapstick sequence involving Long at a tanning salon, a gag that was already done on Friends years ago. The film gets worse with a scene where Applegate picks pubic hair off her dining room table after a late-night session of sex by Erin & Garrett. Just when you think they couldn't sink any lower, here comes the Hitler joke.

Going the Distance is leaps and bounds above god-awful atrocities like The Ugly Truth and Did You Hear About the Morgans? thanks to a pair of likeable leads. But, it fails to place them in anything that is remotely interesting or humorous.

Rating: * ½

Whip It

Whip It - Dir. Drew Barrymore (2009)


After growing up in front of the camera, Drew Barrymore makes her debut behind it with Whip It. Barrymore’s first directorial effort is equal parts glib indie hipster comedy and equal parts misfit sports movie. Think Juno meets Bad News Bears and Slap Shot.

In fact, Juno starlet Ellen Page is cast as the lead, one Bliss Cavendar whose Eggo is a little less preggo here. Bliss is a high school senior in the one horse town of Bodeen which is smack dab in the middle of nowhere, Texas. She works part-time as a waitress at the local diner with her best friend Pash (Arrested Development’s Alia Shawkat). Both are forced to serve their classmates who are mainly dumb jocks and stuck-up cheerleaders. Bliss’s mother Brooke (Marcia Gay Harden) is a postal worker who forces her daughter to compete in local teen beauty pageants. Bliss’s father Earl (Daniel Stern) is passive to the bone doing anything he can to avoid conflict.

Bliss is the proverbial square peg in a round hole until she discovers direction in her directionless life. She finds roller derby. She sneaks off to Austin, lies about her age, and successfully tries out for the league, despite the fact that her only pair of skates has Barbie on them. Bliss becomes a member of the Hurl Scouts, the league’s worst team and damn proud of it. Her teammates are a collection of colorfully named cuties like Maggie Mayhem (Kristen Wiig), Bloody Holly (Zoe Bell), Smashley Simpson (Barrymore), and Rosa Sparks (Eve). Bliss is transformed into Babe Ruthless and becomes the league’s poster girl drawing the ire of rival derby girl Iron Maven (Juliette Lewis). The Scouts even have their own versions of the Hanson Brothers in the form of the Manson Sisters, a pair of deaf & mute enforcers played by real-life derby girls Kristen “Krissy Krash” Adolfi and Rachel “Iron Maiven” Piplica.

The two best performances in the film belong to Kristen Wiig and Andrew Wilson as Hurl Scouts coach Razor. Wiig has stolen many scenes in miniscule bit roles before, Knocked Up and Ghost Town, for example. Here, Wiig is given a more substantial part and a chance to stretch her acting muscles as the team’s resident den mother. Andre Wilson is the elder, lesser known brother of Luke and Owen. Yes, he’s the Zeppo of the Wilson Clan, but I doubt either of his bros could have played the role any better.

The script by Shauna Cross (the real-life Maggie Mayhem) is predictable and uses just about every cliché known in the playbooks of inspirational sports movies and coming-of-age tales. What makes the film work is its overwhelming sense of joy. Whip It is just too much fun not to enjoy.

Rating: ** ½

Everybody's Fine

Everybody's Fine - Dir. Kirk Jones (2009)


Daniel Day-Lewis took on the Marcello Mastroianni role in Nine, a musical based on Fellini’s 8 ½, which I recently reviewed. Here, it is Robert DeNiro’s turn to take on Mastroianni’s part in Everybody’s Fine, a remake of a 1990 Italian film directed by Giuseppe Tornatore (Cinema Paradiso). DeNiro plays Frank Goode, a retired laborer, who manufactured the coating that wrapped around the telephone wires strung across the state of New York. Goode suffers from health problems due to exposure to the toxic ingredients, but he has no regrets. He did it all to provide his children with the best life possible. Frank, a widower, eagerly anticipates the arrival of his kids, who he hasn’t seen since the funeral, for Thanksgiving dinner. However, the children cancel at the last minute.

Frank figures if they won’t come to him, he’ll come to them. Against his doctor’s advice, Frank travels by train and bus to visit his offspring spread across the country. His first stop is to New York City where his son David, an artist, isn’t at home in his apartment close to an art gallery where his work is displayed. Frank heads to Chicago to see his eldest daughter Amy (Kate Beckinsale), an ad executive living in a modern home with her husband and son. In Denver, Frank visits Robert (Sam Rockwell), a supposed symphony conductor who turns out to only be a percussionist. In Las Vegas, Frank sees Rosie (Drew Barrymore), a dancer living in an affluent apartment looking over the strip.

With each subsequent visit, Frank senses that the Goode clan is keeping secrets from him, especially about David’s whereabouts. Mom was the one they could open up to while dad was always the stern taskmaster. Even into adulthood, they are still the little kids afraid of disappointing their father.

It’s refreshing to see DeNiro in a role where he’s not an intense mobster or a hard-nosed cop. DeNiro is allowed to simply be DeNiro here. The same goes for Drew Barrymore who is her usual bright, perky self. Sam Rockwell provides one of the film’s best performances and Kate Beckinsale does just fine. However, I never once bought them as a family because they didn’t look like they were related one bit. They looked like a bunch of movie stars we’re supposed to believe are related. This isn’t the only inauthentic element of Everybody’s Fine. I don’t mean the badly Photoshopped poster. The story is just so trite and schmaltzy while Kirk Jones directs it like a Lifetime movie of the week. The worst offense comes in the climax when Frank (after suffering a heart attack) has a dream where he has a backyard BBQ with David, Robert, Amy, and Rosie as kids. All his revealed then the clouds turn gray and rain pours down in melodramatic fashion.

Everybody’s Fine is a shallow film masquerading as one with deeper meaning.

Rating: **