Miracle

When things are handled correctly, it's hard to beat a good, old-fashioned sports flick. Oh, and the story is based on a true story? Yeah, things just get a little bit easier. Sometimes it ends up being the craziest, no way in hell this could possibly happen angles of the story that end up being the most effective. Case in point, the story of the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team that captivated viewers, eventually earning a film adaptation with 2004's Miracle.

It's early in 1979 and the upcoming 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, New York are fast approaching. For years, the Russian hockey team has rolled through opponents like a buzz saw, destroying opponents left and right. The United States Olympic Committee is trying to do something about that epic winning streak, hiring a former player turned college coach at Minnesota, Herb Brooks (Kurt Russell), to put together a winning team that can make some noise at the upcoming Olympic games. Brooks takes the job but intends to go about putting the team together in his way, regardless of what the U.S.O.C. really thinks or wants. With little expected of the American team, Brooks decides on his team at tryouts and goes to work. His methods are tough, his players bristling at times at his authority, but Brooks isn't interested in making friends. He's interested in making this American hockey team something special, a team that could be on a collision course with the Russian powerhouse. 

Whether you're a hockey fan, a sports fan, or maybe even hate sports, this is a story that resonates. Audiences typically eat up underdog stories, and this is one of the all-time greats in U.S. sports history. Read about the true story HERE with more details. I've never been a huge hockey fan, and that's a big reason it took me most of 10 years to actually watch this. It was worth the wait, director Gavin O'Connor's film more than delivering the goods. 'Miracle' covers a lot of ground from Brooks' hiring to his choosing the team, their training to the actual Olympic games. Unless you've been under a rock for years, you no doubt know how the movie will end, but O'Connor's film does a good job keeping us interested (knowledge of the finale or not), building that momentum right up until the famous semifinal matchup with the powerhouse that was the Russian National team. It's nothing flashy, nothing we haven't seen in sports flicks before, but it is very good from beginning to end.

Kurt Russell is the Man. That is all. He hasn't worked a ton in film over the last 10-plus years, but this is one solid performance. He sinks his teeth into the part of Herb Brooks, the U.S. hockey team's head coach who goes about motivating his team under some unique circumstances. He isn't interested in being a friend to his players, even a casual acquaintance. Brooks is interested in one thing and one thing only; Winning. Russell's Brooks wants a team of hockey players, not a team of hockey stars and on-ice divas who make the game all about themselves. He pushes and pushes his players, knowing what it will take to pull off the impossible. The trick becomes, has he pushed them too far? I loved the performance from Russell (especially his late 70s/early 80s apparel. Those COATS!), the biggest and most important part that brings the real-life Brooks to life. Also look for Patricia Clarkson as Brooks' wife, struggling with the time commitment, and Noah Emmerich and Kenneth Welsh as his assistant coach and team doctor.

If I had an issue with the story, it is that with the focus on Brooks and the team, we don't get to know enough of the players, their history and their backgrounds. Yes, there's 20 players and there's no human way to introduce all of them, delve into all those back stories. Still, an effort for a little more depth would have been excellent. The biggest focus is on Eddie Cahill as Jim Craig, the U.S. team's goalie struggling with some personal and family issues.  Also look for Patrick O'Brien Dempsey, Michael Mantenuto, Nathan West, Kenneth Mitchell, and Eric Peter-Kaiser as the more visible of the U.S. team members.  

My counter to that previous statement is to shoot holes in said statement. Brook's intention as a coach was to bring a team together. Truly bring a team together, the players putting their egos aside for the sake of the team and for their country, the United States. In that sense, the focus of the film is on the team effort, not the individual effort. We don't necessarily need to know a whole lot about the players. As sappy or cheesy as it sounds, this is a movie patriotism and national pride, a story that if you didn't know it was true....you'd think this was some schmaltzy Hollywood script. So in the end, it is both good and bad. The effort is solid, a team's effort to win the Olympics, not the individual players, but I definitely would have liked a little more character development among the U.S. team members. Now that said.....U-S-A, U-S-A!!!

With sports movies sometimes, the biggest weakness is usually....well, the sports. The portrayal of said sport can be a tad rough and/or forced at times. I thought the hockey sequences were great here, whether it is the brutal training the U.S. team goes through (the painful 'Again...' scene following an Olympic warm-up, watch HERE) to the actual games, especially an early game against Sweden that comes down to the wire. The best sequence is of course, the epic showdown with Russia that gave the film its title, broadcaster Al Michaels infamously yelling 'Do you believe in miracles?!?' as the clock winds down. The game is one big drain on your adrenaline, so many up and down moments as the momentum switches back and forth. The actual gold medal game is an afterthought, the focus instead on the semifinals with the Russians. A very enjoyable sports movie, full of a handful of great, memorable moments and featuring an underrated performance from star Kurt Russell.

Miracle (2004): ***/****

The Untouchables

So Prohibition, huh? That must have sucked. People wanted to drink, but the government said it was illegal to do so. The government agencies and police forces were tasked with limiting the bootleggers, but that was easier said than done. The most famous? Eliot Ness, a Treasury agent who became famous for helping take down Chicago gangster Al Capone. His story was turned into a successful TV show in the late 1950s and early 1960s and maybe most famously in a feature film, 1987's The Untouchables.

It's 1930 and Prohibition has turned Chicago into a warring city of dead bodies and rival gangsters fighting for control. The most powerful though is Al Capone (Robert De Niro), ruling the city and the influx of alcohol with an iron fist. Where there's demand, he's got the supply. A U.S. Treasury agent, Eliot Ness (Kevin Costner), has been called in to bring Capone to justice, hopefully bringing his crime empire down with him. Ness, idealistic and a little naive, struggles with where to start, meeting dead end after dead end as he discovers how deep Capone's empire goes. Obsessed with doing his job and doing it well, Ness keeps on, recruiting a small group of agents and police officers, including a tough Chicago beat cop, James Malone (Sean Connery), who knows the streets better than anyone. As he quickly finds out, Ness doesn't know how deep he'll have to go to accomplish his mission, especially when the bodies start to pile up.

From director Brian De Palma, this is one of those perfect guy's guy movies. It is based on Ness' real-life exploits as his crew of Untouchables took the battle to Capone in Chicago between 1929 and 1931. Yes, time is compressed, some names are changed here and there, but the point is the same. It has just about everything going for it. 'Untouchables' was filmed on location in Chicago (looks gorgeous), and it feels like Depression Era Chicago, picking up two Oscar nominations for Costume Design and Art Direction/Set Decoration. Everything from the background on the streets to the cars to the time-appropriate costumes (Armani suits never looked so good), it all adds layer after layer to the film. Also picking up an Oscar nomination is the score from composer Ennio Morricone.Listen to his full soundtrack HERE. I love the sweep of it, quiet, moving Morricone balanced with bigger, epic Morricone.

At the forefront of 'Untcouhables' is a great pairing of stars. Costner is one of the biggest stars of the 1980s with everything from Bull Durham to Field of Dreams, Silverado to No Way Out. Connery was a Hollywood legend, the firmly established star. Their on-screen dynamic is an underrated part of the success here that can get lost in the shuffle. Costner's Eliot is a hard-driving, hard-working idealist. He wants to accomplish his mission, but do it the right way, not knowing how filthy the world is he finds himself in. Connery's Malone is the flat-footed beat cop with a long career behind him. He knows everyone, knows all the secrets and inner-workings. Eliot Ness is looking for help while Malone is looking for a reason to become re-energized again after years of watching greed and corruption poison Chicago. Their scenes together crackle, dialogue just brimming with energy and plenty of great one-liners.

Joining Costner and Connery as the Untouchables are a very young Andy Garcia and a scene-stealing Charles Martin Smith. Garcia plays George Stone, a cop fresh out of the Police Academy and a dead-shot with a pistol, his Italian background hinted at but never fully explained. Garcia's Stone is inherently cool, a man of few words who lets his smirk and his pistol do his talking. Martin Smith plays Oscar Wallace, a Treasury accountant/bookkeeper who jumps at the chance to do some actual field work with the Untouchables. It's four cool characters, a great dynamic among the quartet, an odd couple men on a mission grouping that works perfectly.

Committing to gaining weight to really look the part, De Niro is a fine choice to play infamous Chicago gangster Al Capone. It is a part that would have been easy to be exaggerated, but De Niro knows how far to push it. Capone is hot-tempered, fiery and barely keeps his emotions in check. The part is mostly long scenes, monologues really, where De Niro gets to flex a bit. Richard Bradford plays the police commissioner caught in the middle of it all and maybe playing all sides, Patricia Clarkson plays Ness' pregnant wife, an uncredited Clifton James as the prosecuting district attorney, and Billy Drago as Frank Nitti, Capone's chief enforcer and accomplished killer.

With the actual history here condensed from a few years to seemingly a few months, we get an episodic story that covers a ton of ground in the 119-minute movie. More than the performances, the music, the period appropriate....well, everything, 'Untouchables' always stands out for me because of the well-staged set pieces. An ambush near the Canadian border is a gem, the machine guns rattling like crazy to Morricone's swooping score. The highlight though has Ness and Co. looking for Capone's bookkeeper, desperately trying to get out of town, at Union Station. The action, the drama, the nods to classic films (Battleship Potempkin), and the slow motion all build to this almost unbearable tension. Maybe it isn't the most unified script/story, but the set pieces help keep things together beginning to end. A gem, a must-see for fans of Costner, Connery, gangster movie fans and any Chicagoans.

The Untouchables (1987): ****/****

Shutter Island

When a big budget movie comes out and I find out it's based on a book, I typically try to read the book first before seeing the movie.  It isn't a hard and fast rule, but it always helps when I've heard of the author or know the book is held in high regard.  For that reason, it took me a month and a half to see Shutter Island in theaters.  When I saw previews for a thriller from director Martin Scorsese, I was hooked, but I paused when I heard it is based on a novel by Dennis Lehane and features quite a twist.  My thinking has always been with books/movies, if I'm going to be surprised, I'd rather be surprised by a book.  

After reading the book, I can say the twist worked very effectively and I never saw it coming.  In a way, seeing the movie after finishing Lehane's novel almost made the theater viewing feel like a second time around.  Scorsese sticks extremely closely to the storyline with a few small exceptions and one MAJOR exception, but on the whole, the highly respected director more than treats the subject matter with respect.  As for the twist, knowing it going into the movie certainly influences the viewing.  No two ways about it, this is a good twist.  Hints are dropped left and right, but they are incidental moments that mean nothing without the knowledge.  It's not a twist for the sake of having a twist, instead providing a moving and surprising ending.

It's 1954 and U.S. Marshal Teddy Daniels (Scorsese favorite Leonardo DiCaprio) has been teamed up with a new partner, Chuck Aule (Mark Ruffalo), on a strange investigation.  In Boston Harbor on a small island called Shutter Island, a violent criminal escapes from her cell at Ashecliffe Mental Hospital.  Daniels and Aule are called in to investigate the escape which as the evidence is revealed seems more and more like a disappearance.  Nothing adds up concerning the escape, and the head physician, Dr. Cawley (Ben Kingsley) seems to be hiding something.  Nothing on the island is what it's supposed to be, and Daniels and Aule begin to wonder what they've gotten themselves into.

Several reviews I've read said Scorsese's newest movie has some Hitchcockian cues, and I'd be hard pressed to argue that, especially making some comparisons to Vertigo.  I think the closest thing you can compare Shutter Island to is Scorsese's remake of Cape Fear, but even then, it's a loose comparison.  The director has created a visually stunning movie here, full of doom and gloom on this island out in Boston Harbor.  The cinematography is beautiful in a dark, terrifying sort of way, a foreboding that everything is not quite right.  Lots of play with dark and light, shadows and smoke make the story uncomfortable to watch at times like a good thriller should.

However, after watching the trailer, reading the book, and now having seen the movie, I think it was marketed wrong.  It's advertised as a scary movie, but it really isn't.  Sure, there's some 'Gotcha!' moments, but as a whole, it's a moody, dialogue-driven movie.  The creepiest parts of the movie by far are the flashbacks and dream sequences as Teddy deals with some demons from his past as he investigates this peculiar case.  The island setting contributes to this because as the marshals begin to uncover things there's no place to go, they're trapped and at the mercy of the hospital's staff.  That feeling of claustrophobia just adds and builds on this sense of doom that starts from the opening shot and never really lets up.  Kudos to the soundtrack (can't find a composer) that at times is loud and ominous at times, and quiet and soothing at others.

Early in his career, Scorsese's favorite actor was Robert De Niro, but now DiCaprio has stepped into the spotlight as the favorite.  I loved him in The Departed, and here he even continues on with that Boston accent.  Other than that, it's a great performance.  His Teddy Daniels is a man who's good at what he does, but sometimes at a cost.  His mental stability is questioned because of his past when his wife died in a fire started by an arsonist.  The character is basically the viewer, trying to piece things together as they're presented.  DiCaprio hasn't made a ton of movies for being such a huge star, but this quickly climbs to the top of the list in my opinion.

With a Scorsese movie though, one star wouldn't be enough, and here his supporting cast is pitch perfect.  Ruffalo gets the workmanlike role as the new partner trying to keep up with Teddy's investigation.  It's a thankless part, but he's rewarded in the end.  Kingsley matches DiCaprio step for step as Dr. Cawley, the head physician at Ashecliffe in a role that keeps you guessing.  What's he really up to?  He is steering the marshals away from something or steering them where he wants them to be?  A consummate pro like Kingsley handles it with ease in a part that I hope gets him some Oscar buzz for best supporting actor.  Michelle Williams plays Dolores, Teddy's dead wife who he still sees in his dreams in a very moving part.  If that trio wasn't enough, add Max von Sydow, Patricia Clarkson, Jackie Earle Haley, Elias Koteas, Ted Levine, Emily Mortimer and John Carroll Lynch.  Other than von Sydow, none of those mentioned are in more than a scene or two, but they all bring their A-game with their brief appearances.  Audiences may have issue with the movie, but it's not because of the cast.

I go back and forth with movies with a twist, but when handled well I have no issue with them.  This is clearly one handled well.  It's the type of story that leaves you confused and questioning everything you saw and will almost certainly make a second viewing almost mandatory to see all the clues and hints.  Even knowing it's coming in the movie, it still surprised me because it is handled so well.  The reveal is by far the best scene in the movie and the most powerful/emotional too.  Scorsese did make one addition -- the movie's final line -- which I thought was unnecessary, but other than that, I have no issue with a twist that seems to divide audiences right down the middle.

A little different for Martin Scorsese, sure, but with one of the best directors ever, it's fun just to see him work.  This is a movie that works in term of story and also on its own as a strong movie with casting, cinematography, and atmosphere.  It doesn't really matter the order, but read the book and see the movie!

Shutter Island <----trailer (2010): ****/****