‘Miracle Season’ a feel good movie about overcoming the odds
"The Miracle Season" was released to home theater outlets this week.
LD Entertainment
“The Miracle Season” was released to home theater outlets this week.
With the loss of their star player after a tragic accident, a high school volleyball team pulls together to try and win the state championships in “The Miracle Season,” which was released to home theater outlets this week.
The film is based on real-life events of the Iowa City West High School volleyball team winning the 2011 state championship after the death of their teammate Caroline Found (Danika Yarosh, “Shameless” and “Heroes Reborn”).
In 2011, 17-year-old Caroline “Line” Found died in a moped accident, robbing Ernie Found (William Hurt, “A History of Violence” and “Lost in Space”) of his daughter and coach Kathy Bresnahan’s (Helen Hunt, “As Good As It Gets” and “Twister”) Iowa City West High volleyball team of its best player.
Against improbable odds, the team of dispirited high school girls made the decision to band together under the guidance of their tough-love coach in hopes of winning the state championship.
While the tomatometer on the Rotten Tomatoes website gives the film just a 47 percent fresh rating from critics, it also shows that 87 percent of audiences who responded to their pole liked the film.
Katie Walsh, a top critic at the “Los Angeles Times,” said, “‘The Miracle Season’ is pleasantly swift, but in a quest for ruthless efficiency, a few charater beats are skipped.”
Top Critic Adam Graham with the “Detroit News” said, “The underlying story here is powerful enough that it sells itself. The best thing about ‘The Miracle Season’ is it lets that story unfold and doesn’t do anything to stand in its way.”
On the other side, Top Critic Brad Wheeler with the “Globe and Mail” said it was “a simple movie of straightforward sentimentalism and gung-ho, against-all-odds inspiration” despite his rating of just two out of four stars.
Bruce DeMara with the “Toronto Star,” said it “simply wallows too deeply in its grief to be uplifting.”
The film has a PG rating for some thematic elements.
Other movies that came to home theater outlets this week include:
n “Life of the Party,” directed by Ben Falcone and starring Melissa McCarthy, Gillian Jacobs, Maya Rudolph and Julie Bowen. Fresh off a divorce from a 23-year marriage, a mom in her 40s, decides to finally get her degree and joins her daughter at college. There, she enjoys life on campus, crazy parties, and library hookups while coming to terms with her new situation.
This film is rated PG-13 for drug use/content and sexual situations.
n “Breaking In,” directed by James McTeigue and starring Gabrielle Union, Billy Burke, Richard Cabral and Ajiona Alexus. A mother takes her teen children to her late father’s high-security countryside home. Several men break in, hold the children hostage, and enable full security to lock her out. She breaks in, desperate to do whatever it takes for her kids’ safety.
This film is rated PG-13 for bloody images, language, sexuality and violence.