Brutal but sweet, how can that be?

Rating: 8/10 (12 April 2015)

I watched this film because I like hockey and I heard it was a good story. Both points turned out to be true. However, the fight scenes are a little too gory for me: lots of blood and teeth and sound effects. Also the characters are just as crude and foul-mouthed as the stereotype. Hardly a line of dialog without an f word and a reference to penises, gays, and/or sex. If you know what you're getting into, then you may be able to see the really sweet story of Doug Glatt and his team, the Halifax Highlanders.
So, Doug is not too bright, but he has firm ideas of the right thing to do. He is working as a bouncer in a bar when the film opens, hanging out with his best friend who has a sort of amateur hockey talk show. One night at a local team's game, an opposing team's player climbs into the crowd to fight with Doug's friend and Doug knocks him around. The coach of the local team invites him to join the team, to be a goon and protect the other players. Doug can't even skate, but he wants to belong. It isn't long before he gets sent up to Halifax to play in a Canadian league and that's where most of the story takes place.
Doug's teammates are the usual band of misfits: the alcoholic old dog who is going through a divorce, the young earnest but not very good guy, the phenom who was injured in a NHl game and is trying to get his groove back, etc. They don't know how to be a team and they are terrible on the ice. It takes the open-hearted honesty of Doug the Thug to mold them into winners. And some fights, of course. By the way, there is also a love- interest in Eva. I'm not convinced she adds anything to the story but the scenes between Doug and Eva are mostly cute. "You make me want to stop sleeping with lots of guys" is not a great line, but it kind of works.