Written by Vickie
February 04, 2012
This innocuous, feel-good family film does a nice job of recounting the true-story plight of three trapped whales and the humans working to free them. It’s not scintillating or filled with action... it’s just nice. Which works.
With a surprisingly extensive cast and set in 1988, the story centers on small-time TV reporter Adam Carlson (John Krasinski) who, while on assignment in the otherwise desolate and uneventful Barrow, Alaska, stumbles upon what he hopes will be a career-making story: he finds three grey whales trapped under a five-mile stretch of solid ice, with just a small patch of open water available to let them breathe. Faster than you can say “satellite hook-up,” the story makes the national news and earns worldwide attention.
Among those taking a particular interest in the whales’ plight are: Greenpeace activist Rachel Kramer (Drew Barrymore); oil tycoon J.W. McGraw (Ted Danson), whose company plans to drill in the area; California reporter Jill Jerard (Kristen Bell), who hopes to make a name for herself in the big leagues of television news; a pair of Minnesota brothers (James LeGros, Rob Riggle) with an invention they hope will help; and an Inuit boy (Ahmaogak Sweeney) walking the line between the modern-day world and that of his ancestors.
Though the film never really feels like it’s unfolding in the late-1980s – assorted hairdos, language quips and, especially, Danson’s decidedly 21st-century glasses smack of 2011 – it does deliver a very clear environmental message wrapped in an animal tale suitable for audiences of all ages. The filmmakers offer up a very balanced story, with each side represented in a non-judgmental way, and the traditions of the indigenous peoples of the Arctic given fair and equal weight. There aren’t really any “villains,” per se, but the movie doesn’t suffer from the lack of a clear antagonist. In this case, the antagonist is largely circumstance.
I’m not sure the film needed the love triangle – between Krasinski, Barrymore and Bell – thrown in, and some of the superfluous “TV people fighting to nail The Big Story” seemed a little cartoonish given the nature of the subject matter. Both Krasinski and Barrymore are incredibly likeable and are, not surprisingly, very cute together. Danson works well as the (however slightly) morally conflicted rich guy, and talented folks like Vinessa Shaw, Dermot Mulroney, Tim Blake Nelson and Kathy Baker all turn up in effective cameos.
Big Miracle falls squarely into the Free Willy genre of films – namely, family-oriented stories about animals, that educate as much as they entertain. And, as far as I’m concerned, that’s a good thing.
