Movie Review: Eddie The Eagle (2015)

Genre: Biographical Sports Drama  

Director: Dexter Fletcher  

Starring: Taron Egerton, Hugh Jackman, Christopher Walken  

Running Time: 106 minutes  

Synopsis: Despite physical ailments and no natural talent, Englishman Michael "Eddie" Edwards (Taron Egerton) grows up dreaming of becoming an Olympic athlete. His mother is sympathetic, but his blue collar father scoffs at his ambition. With the 1988 Calgary winter games looming, Eddie stumbles upon ski jumping and realizes Britain has no athletes in the sport. He relocates to a training facility in Germany, where he encounters the scorn of other jumpers, but also meets former US Olympian Bronson Peary (Hugh Jackman), who never fulfilled his potential but may now be able to coach Eddie.

What Works Well: This is a traditional and impossible-to-dislike feel-good sports biography, celebrating the spirit of participation and the journey of determination as much more important than results. Taron Egerton brings a naive likeability to the role of Eddie, and director Dexter Fletcher deploys self-deprecating humour to acknowledge the more bizarre aspects of an unlikely quest. The ski jumping scenes convey the dramatic thrill of a gravity-defying sport. 

What Does Not Work As Well: The complete absence of any original or unexpected content underlines the embrace of safe and old-fashioned storytelling, with Hugh Jackman exceptionally familiar as a natural talent who swerved away from success and into the bottle. A faux triumphant music score does not help, nor does the gnawing sense that the celebration of loophole-exploiting mediocrity is simply undeserved pomp.

Conclusion: The spirit of an eagle, the achievements of a warbler.



All Ace Black Movie Blog reviews are here.