I totally forgot to mention it, but Cami and I ended up going to Miracle on Friday night. It almost didn't happen. Des Moines saw it's 3 huge snowstorm in two weeks that day and it dumped another 4 inches on us. I spent an hour and a half shoveling out drifts from my driveway when I got home. By the time I was finished, I didn't want to go anywhere!
But then movie geekdom got the better of me. I realized that if we didn't see Miracle Friday night, we probably wouldn't see it at all that weekend. Saturday night we were having dinner with friends and Sunday night is my all-important Simpsons/Sex and the City/Curb Your Enthusiasm entertainment block. I would go to a matinee... but I'm not 80 years old.
So, we caught the late show on Friday. By the way, did anyone else know that Miracle was over 2 hours long? Who would have guessed.
I really enjoyed the movie and that says a lot because I'm not usually one for sports movies nor do I know anything about hockey. Compound the issue with the fact that I already know how it ends and, well... that's one sticky wicket.
Still, Miracle hits all the right notes. Inspiring. Emotional. Poignant without being too over the top. You can tell it was made with great care toward the players and their stories.
Kurt Russell knocks it out of the park (to mix metaphors) with his portrayal of Herb Brooks. He spends most of the movie being a hard ass to his players, but there are moments where Russell disarms him so completely with only a few glances... it's amazing. It really is one of the best performances of his career.
I don't know if anyone is going to walk out of Miracle thinking it'll be a big Oscar winner. Most likely, we'll forget about it by June. But it IS a finely-crafted movie and probably the best one of the year so far. See it now before it drops out of theaters.
