Eddie the Eagle
Director:
Dexter Fletcher
Writers:
Sean Macaulay, Simon Kelton
Starring:
Taron Egerton, Hugh Jackman, Jo Hartley, Keith Allen
Rating:
Three and a half stars out of five
Available
in theaters now
Eddie
the Eagle is a movie that knows exactly what it is and it is
proud to be exactly that. It couldn’t be more paint-by-numbers as
far as plot structure goes. It is more saccharine than a wedding cake
and it might be the most dumbly earnest “inspirational sports
movie” to hit theaters this decade. And it is wonderful.
The
movie tells the story of Michael “Eddie” Edwards, a gawky working
class kid from England who spent large portions of his childhood in
and out of hospitals, a leg brace dragging down his ability to
achieve his lofty dreams worse than any ball and chain could.
Beginning in flashback, a young Eddie holds a stopwatch above the
surface of his bathtub water while he counts away the seconds. He
gets to just under a minute and he jolts up, his goggles and bathing
suit dripping all over the floor. His elation is palpable. His
training is underway. He is going to the Olympics, as he repeats to
his mother over and over again throughout his childhood.
Eddie,
played as an adult by Kingsman: The Secret Service’s Taron
Egerton, eventually outgrows the need for the leg brace, but his
athletic abilities never match his ambitions. He tries every sport in
the book -- literally, he has a book about Olympic greats -- but all
he does is collect broken pair of glasses after broken pair of
glasses in the tin his mother insists is for storing his future
medals.
There
are no surprises whatsoever in this setup. His mother (Jo Hartley) is
optimistic, forever encouraging Eddie to keep his head up, instilling
in him his own determination to accomplish something with his life
while his father (Keith Allen) is a curmudgeonly middle-aged man who
has given up on whatever dreams he had as a young man to become a
plasterer – he “suggests” to Eddie that he do the same. Hugh
Jackman, as a drunken disgrace of a former American ski jumper with a
chip on his shoulder and something to prove, is won over by Eddie's
heart and desire to improve – and maybe a little motivation is
provided by not wanting to see this newbie break his neck – so he
becomes Eddie's coach. The British Olympic Committee, in classic
snobs-versus-slobs fashion, throws a wrench into every attempt Eddie
makes to qualify for the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary so they
won't be embarrassed by the results. There is a heartwarming
conclusion.
But
Eddie the Eagle has a couple extra things on its mind. They
exist on the edges of its formulaic plot, and they are what keep the
movie from dissolving into drivel. There is a sly and deeply funny
point being made amid the inspirational quotes about the nobility of
competition itself regardless of the skill level of those competing.
It is that Eddie is really bad at this. This is not Rocky,
where the plucky fighter can go toe-to-toe with the champ. There is
never a point in Eddie the Eagle where Eddie stands a chance
of actually being a contender. He qualifies for the Games via
loopholes and a lack of any other British ski jumpers for decades
before him. And it takes a lifetime of hard work just for him to
reach the level of being the worst professional in the sport. It is
not meant to dissuade anyone from trying their best, because it
certainly doesn't get in the way of Eddie's own pursuit of mediocrity
– you might get lucky and set some national records while you're at
it.
As
Eddie, Egerton shows that he is more than just the snotty charm
offensive that made him such an effective satirical action hero in
Kingsman. He put on a little weight for the role. The glasses
magnify his eyes just enough to appear vaguely bug-like. Eddie's
severe underbite means the actor portraying him has to speak with his
jaw jutted out the entire time. It gives Eddie a good-natured grimace
for the film's runtime, which is endearing and impossible to root
against, especially when paired with the overall story of a guy using
his limited gifts to do something nobody in his country had done.
Similarly,
Jackman is the gruff guy with a soft spot for the underdog. His
American accent is bizarrely all over the place, but it barely
matters. He beams with pride at the limited accomplishments made by
his young charge, and the pair's enthusiasm for their gravity- and
death-defying antics on the world's biggest stage is what makes the
movie.
It
helps that director Dexter Fletcher, himself a likable working actor
perhaps best known to American audiences for Guy Ritchie's Lock,
Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, imbues the movie's imagery with
some “gadzooks” wow factor. The CGI can be a little dodgy at
times – certain ski jumpers' missed landings and subsequent tumbles
can look weightless, limiting their visceral impact on a viewer –
but when left to the devices of a moving camera, Fletcher can do some
powerful things. The slides along a wire up the slopes at a rapid
pace to meet Eddie as he looks down gingerly with a “how do I make
this work?” look on his face, and the closeups of Eddie's joy
during his jumps is the best kind of fun movies can be.
There
is little Eddie the Eagle does to transcend its limited goals,
much like its protagonist. But it accomplishes exactly what it set
out to do, and it does so lovably. It's probably a step or two below
great, but that's no matter. Sometimes an earnest romp is all you
need.
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