Written by | Walker Kuykendal |
Typically, I’m not a person who enjoys feel-good movies. They’re corny, predictable and usually just weak in every aspect. That is what I was expecting when I went to see Eddie the Eagle, but the talented acting, interesting plot and excellent comedic timing blew my expectations out of the water.Eddie, played by Taron Egerton, is a very athletically challenged individual who is determined to compete for Great Britain in the Olympics. After years of failure, Eddie sets his sights on the Winter Olympics and becomes quite good at skiing but not good enough to make Great Britain’s ski team. In the face of failure once again, Eddie presses on and takes up ski jumping, which is where he meets Hugh Jackman’s character, Bronson Peary, an American Olympic ski jumping gold medalist who, in his later years, is drunk more often than not and working the snowplow at a ski jumping training ground.
After seeing Eddie take a terrible tumble down the 70-meter jump, Peary agrees to coach him so he can qualify to be Great Britain’s only ski jumper in the Olympics. After months of training, Eddie qualifies and makes it to the Olympics, but after the excitement wears off, he realizes that he is just a joke to spectators and Olympians alike. With the lowest jump score on the leaderboard, he realizes that he needs to take himself seriously if he wants others to. Even though he has reached his goal of just making it into the Olympics, he has sold himself short by sliding into the system through a loophole. He decides to take on the 90-meter jump for the first time. After barely landing and bringing the spectators to their feet in celebration, he returns home a hero. He still had a terrible score, but he returns home a hero nonetheless.
Jackman and Egerton work together really well, and though this movie isn’t in the comedy genre, there are many parts that had me roaring. On the other side of that coin, Egerton’s performance as Eddie is amazing. I could feel the rejection from my theater seat every time somebody wrote off Eddie without a second thought. Although this isn’t the underdog story where the little guy wins the gold, Eddie accomplishes his dream and then some, which is a little corny, but if you think this movie is just a typical feel-good flick, then you are wrongfully judging this book by its cover, which also is corny.
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