Men With Brooms
Call itThe Full Montyon ice. With tongue firmly in cheek, director-writer-star Paul Gross applies the old underdog sports-team formula to that great Northern obsession: curling. (You thought hockey was the national obsession? So did Canada.) You know the score: estranged teammates reunite to fulfill a dead man's last request, win glory for their fictional hometown, and earn back their hibernating self-respect. Square-jawed Gross recalls hisDue Southdays as the amiable team captain, a boy scout with an impish streak. Leslie Nielsen turns down the usual goofball shtick to play Gross's crotchety, self-medicating father. There are enough issues here to fuel a dozen movies and none of them packs the punch of a pint of Molson's beer, which is just the right tone for this off-center sports spoof, a story of little victories, big stones, and beavers on the move.--Sean Axmaker