It's a Miracle I wasn't enthralled

Rating: 6/10 (7 February 2004)

I won't always use full sentences. A phrase, or word is as good as a mile.
Expected to embrace this film with my entire being. Forget entire.
Kurt Russell gave a fine performance as Herb Brooks, coach of the U.S. Olympic soccer team that won the gold medal at the 1980 Olympics. The 20+ soccer players were interchangeable with semi-memorable personal stories. And this is where MIRACLE failed me. Unlike SEA BISCUIT, where 3 human lives and 1 animal life, combined to form the "perfect storm" that was the story of Sea Biscuit, in MIRACLE the chemistry that makes good stories extraordinary was missing. Hooray USA. Hooray soccer team. Hooray Herb Brooks. But I was only touched intellectually, not viscerally. And, since I'm no script doctor, I offer no further opinion in that area.
Give me stories about people, real or fictional, that I can care about, cry with, be frightened of, or admire beyond description.
MIRACLE failed, for me, by not even arousing deep feelings for Herb Brooks who had such a desperate need to win that Olympic game because he had been sent home, 20 years before, being unable to play on the U.S. team that won the gold medal in 1960. Here was a human story barely touched upon and which, with a little milking, might have possibly saved MIRACLE, a wasted opportunity - quite sadly so.