The Wife and I saw Eddie the Eagle, the movie about British Winter Olympics athlete Michael “Eddie” Edwards, back in late February at the Spectrum Theatre in Albany.
It’s the story about a boy with a dream to be in the Olympics, much to the disdain of his father. Because of childhood illness and/or injuries, Eddie (Taron Egerton) doesn’t have the skills to do the Summer Games sports and is eventually cut from the Olympic ski team.
With the support of his mother, Eddie travels to Germany to see if he can become a ski jumper. He, almost literally, runs into Bronson Peary (Hugh Jackman), a former ski jumper who now works as a snowplow driver who holds his liquor quite well. He too dismisses Eddie’s dream but eventually changes his mind.
This is one of those “feel good” stories, like Cool Runnings, the movie about the unlikely Jamaican bobsled team, the story of which is briefly mentioned. My favorite thing about seeing Eddie the Eagle in the movie theater is this brief snippet of dialogue with Egerton and Jackman thanking us for seeing the film in a cinema.
My maybe-it’s-a-problem is that it so uses the caveat that the story, while based on a real guy, is largely fiction. For me, the story is compelling primarily if he had to win over the British sports establishment, other athletes, the fans, the totally fictional Peary, and especially Eddie’s father. Reading the Wikipedia entry about the athlete, it’s a very different narrative.
More distracting is this book that Eddie carried around with the face of Peary’s former coach, Warren Sharp. The guy on the cover looked very much like Christopher Walken. And, of course, eventually, we meet Sharp, who of course IS played by Walken.
Eddie the Eagle works much of the time. My wife liked it more than I, but I think it’d not be a waste of time to see it as a rental.
