‘Eddie the Eagle’ review: Feel-good film plays loose with facts, sticks to formula

Taron Egerton, left, is a British ski jumper and Hugh Jackman his coach in "Eddie the Eagle." Credit: Twentieth Century Fox Film / Larry Horricks
PLOT The mostly true story of England’s underdog ski-jumping Olympian in 1988.
CAST Taron Egerton, Hugh Jackman
RATED PG-13 (language and suggestive humor)
LENGTH 1:46
BOTTOM LINE Fluffy as new-fallen snow, but Egerton is terrific as the unlikely Olympian and Jackman makes a fictitious character seem almost real.
“Eddie the Eagle” is based on the life of Michael “Eddie” Edwards, a British ski jumper who, despite minimal experience and a questionable amount of talent, wound up representing his country at the 1988 Calgary Winter Olympics. This feel-good film plays loose with the facts, sticks to formula and packs few, if any, surprises. And darned if it doesn’t work like a charm.
“Eddie the Eagle” plays up its underdog angle unabashedly. In this film, Eddie (Taron Egerton) isn’t a diamond in the rough but a hopeless washout. Severely farsighted and uncoordinated, with one leg that required a childhood brace, Eddie grows up dreaming of the Olympics and crash-landing his way into adulthood — yet he refuses to give up hope. These opening scenes go a long way toward endearing us to this odd, brave, resilient character.
In real-life, Eddie was self-trained — a remarkable fact, but one that would make a monotonous movie. Screenwriters Sean Macaulay and Simon Kelton cleverly create a fictional trainer, Bronson Peary, a disgraced Olympic skier who was Eddie’s opposite: hugely talented, arrogant and undisciplined. Today Peary is the classic drunk-who-works-a-menial-job, but as played by Hugh Jackman he brims with roguish charisma. Together, he and Eddie force their way into the Olympics alongside well-funded competitors and European snobs.
What more do you need to know? Eddie’s supportive mother (Jo Hartley) and dream-crushing father (Keith Allen) are worthwhile tropes, as is the upper-crust British Olympic Association led by a sneering Tim McInnerny. The film suffers from a lack of romantic subplot — why not create that, too? — but it hits every other necessary nail on the head.
Directed with fittingly broad strokes by Dexter Fletcher, “Eddie the Eagle” may or may not become another “Billy Elliot,” but it ought to mark Egerton (“Kingsman: The Secret Service”) as an actor worth watching. In this lightweight movie, he’s better than he even needs to be, conveying Eddie’s social awkwardness and indomitable spirit with a squinty-eyed frown that somehow becomes heroic. It’s a terrific performance that helps “Eddie the Eagle” take flight.
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