Big Miracle has all the important elements required to deliver a heartfelt family drama. A feel-good story about a group of people who put their differences aside to try and achieve the seemingly impossible, it's about the struggle to free gray whales trapped in the frozen Arctic Circle.
Inspired by a true event, the story unfolds in a way that's rather low key and predictable. This no doubt has something to do with knowing, even if you've never heard of this 1988 rescue, that as it's been turned into a movie the outcome is likely to be positive. Equally though, director Ken Kwapis adopts a laid-back approach that lacks sentimentality and melodrama.
The story of the three gray whales (a mother, father and baby) trapped under the ice and using a small hole to surface and breathe is initially broken by Adam (Krasinski), a small-town reporter in Barrow, Alaska. It's not long before the story goes national, and then global. Soon everyone from Greenpeace, the local Inuit tribe, the National Guard, President Reagan and oil executives are involved in rescuing these whales. Even the Russians get in on the act.
There's a romantic subplot between Adam and ex-girlfriend Rachel (Barrymore), a passionate Greenpeace representative (whose unhinged and militant activist routine won't win Greenpeace any new fans), and fun poked at the media and politicians for their role in the event.
All Big Miracle really asks though is for you to sit back and wait for one of the numerous crazy plans to work and return these whales back to open sea.
Stars: 3/5
Cast: Drew Barrymore, John Krasinski
Director: Ken Kwapis
Running time: 107 mins
Rating: PG (low level offensive language)
Verdict: Environmentally safe family entertainment
-TimeOut
