Underdog sports movies like “Invincible” or “Miracle” almost never get points for originality. Person (or team) wants to succeed, everyone says person won’t, person doesn’t give up, person eventually has varying degree of victory. That’s the plotline, and it’s borderline pointless to complain about the formula.
What separates the good from the mediocre is heart and tone, and the true story-inspired “Eddie the Eagle” feels winning and likable more often than not. For as long as he can remember, Eddie (justified new star Taron Egerton of “Kingsman: The Secret Service”) wanted to be an Olympian, his imperfect vision and childhood “Forrest Gump”-like leg brace be damned. When he doesn’t make the British downhill skiing Olympic team, Eddie soon finds himself in his own version of “Cool Runnings” (actually, the Jamaican bobsledders competed at the same Olympics) trying to compete as a British ski jumper in the 1988 games and learning that there hasn’t been a British ski jumping team in nearly 60 years. Never mind that the 22-year-old has virtually no experience in a sport that Norwegian competitors apparently begin mastering at age 6. And flying high and far isn’t especially conducive to being self-taught.
Enter Bronson Peary (Hugh Jackman), a former ski jump talent kicked off the U.S. team and now a boozy mess. And yep, here’s where we start taking issue with the lack of imagination in the script from a pair of first-time writers (who do at least score a few laughs and make the featured sport look compelling). Peary’s not a real person, and he exhibits all the safe, bland traits of a salty vet/fallen star ready for redemption through an enthusiastic youngster. Similarly, the support of Eddie’s mom and skepticism of Eddie’s dad feel wholly generic, whether or not it really happened that way, and director Dexter Fletcher neglects to let Eddie’s sight play a factor the way that it should. A much more interesting movie could have been made about why Eddie’s determination turned him into a phenomenon and what the reaction says about sports and the Olympics.
That’s not what “Eddie the Eagle” is going for, though. This is feel-good simplicity all the way, with Egerton putting inspirational value in using adversity as a motivational tool and Jackman appealing in his grizzled path to prove people wrong about his student and himself. The best player on the team is never the fan favorite, and that applies to both Eddie’s PR story and “Eddie the Eagle” as source of undemanding smiles.
See it, I guess. 2.5 stars (out of four)
Selected quote: “I think I’m ready for that big one.” —Eddie after succeeding on the medium-height jump once
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@mattpais, mpais@redeyechicago.com
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