I say chaps, running is fun!

Rating: 5/10 (21 February 2009)

A Cambridge Jew (Harold Abrams) and an unaffiliated Christian (Eric Liddell) make their way to the 1924 Paris Olympics. One, by far the more interesting character, spends much time griping about anti-Semitism (not shown ..?) and the other feels the lord needs another missionary. The basic problem with C.o.F. is that the writers can't scare up a decent conflict. And Abrams and Liddel share one flimsy greeting in a locker room, so it remains a puzzle why they share a movie. Not helping things is the chilly distance the production adopts; although the cast is quite extensive, no character develops any issue unrelated to the official storyline, which is crystal-clear after ten minutes.
Liddel is the sort who can't wait to tell everyone how humble he is, and that everyone should aspire to be humble like him. He's hen-pecked by his lemon-sucking sister (quite a trick) who's using religion to make him bend to her will, not God's. Together they have their Christian humility turned up to eleven. Abram's (Ben Cross) storyline is slightly better, but nothing you haven't seen before. If anti-Semitism is wrong, one gets the feeling it's only because it's beneath him as a classy, urbane snob. Everyone suffers over trifles rather photogenically, none better than Cross, who is an unusually striking man. This is the kind of movie that viewers watch and passively dispense a rave in response to overt "Best Picture" production values, in the mistaken belief that great movies are about taste. But as usual, taste has little to do with art.
As a travelogue the movie inspires with historic locations, international travel, and it can't help but make a viewer more worldly. As a poor pre-teen it provided me with fantasies of opportunities and accomplishments, but as an "inspirational movie" in 2009, it's rather inert. Vangelis' intentionally anachronistic music once worked but is now obtrusive.