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BY BROOKE HOLGERSON
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Somebody needs to give Kurt Russell a great movie. He’s had good roles, including this one, but he deserves better. Miracle, the true story of the 1980 US Olympic Gold Medal–winning hockey team, is a feel-good, inspirational story that would be hard to ruin, and director Gavin O’Connor doesn’t. He doesn’t make it great, either, which is a shame. Given the current state of the world, you should be crying like a baby at the end of this movie, when the underdog Americans — a bunch of college kids for the most part — come from behind to beat the seemingly unstoppable Russians, but at best you might get a little misty. Russell gives a tough, concise performance as coach Herb Brooks, but he’s such a hard-ass, he’s not really likable. And though the team, mostly made up of hockey players who act, has some good moments, the players never emerge as individuals. Brooks’s coaching emphasizes teamwork, and O’Connor seems to embrace this philosophy as well, focusing on the group dynamic. For a film whose title alone calls for something extraordinary, Miracle is business as usual. (136 minutes)
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