Eddie the Eagle Review
Eddie the Eagle Review: Uplifting! This Generation’s ‘Rudy’ – Inspirational. Funny. Empowering. Eddie will ski jump his way into your heart in this feel-good film. The film stars Taron Egerton (Kingsman: The Secret Service) as the goofy, yet loveable Eddie Edwards whose journey to become an Olympian is more difficult than he had ever imagined.
Over twenty years later, the football film “Rudy,” with a young Sean Aston in the title role, is still iconic, and supports the notion that that you don’t have to win the ultimate prize to fulfill your dreams. Filmgoers may get a bit of deja vu, as Eddie, like Rudy, has dreams of being on a grand stage in sports, yet with no pedigree, no money, and no precedent. Here, though, Eddie is not just trying to play football, he is on a quest to ski-jump at the Winter Olympics, which is an extremely dangerous proposition. In his career, the real-life Eddie Edwards has fractured his skull twice, damaged a kidney, snapped a cruciate ligament in his knee, and broken all manner of bones, including his jaw.
In this film, Eddie, despite all the advice to the contrary from his father and other ski-jumpers, is fearless. So fearless that even his would-be trainer Bronson Peary (Hugh Jackman) couldn’t discourage him from trying bigger and more death-defying jumps. Despite their totally opposite lifestyles (Eddie consumes endless amounts of milk; Bronson – same, but hard liquor), the two share common goals of validation and redemption. All of this sets the stage for some great training montages and ski-jumping cinematography. While we had flashbacks of John Cusack in Better Off Dead and even Andy Samberg in Hot Rod, Director Dexter Fletcher and cinematographer George Richmond (“Kingsman: The Secret Service”) bring something entirely new to the genre. We not only watch the ski-jump, we experience it, with amazing Go-Pro-esque angles and cuts which get better each scene. The Olympic grand finale is something to behold, with the 1988 wardrobe, the 80’s music, and even bits of the real life broadcast.
Eddie the Eagle Review: You can’t not admire and enjoy this film for what it is. It doesn’t aim to shatter box office records. It doesn’t feature non-stop action every minute. Nor will it garner Oscar nods for all the main characters. What it will do is entertain, inspire, and offer families a great, non-animation option at the movies. For parents who were teenagers during the 80’s, the nostalgia, the music, and the original-ugly-christmas-sweater wardrobe will not disappoint. Oh, and Christopher Walken. Nuff said.
