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Some more comic escapades in the not-really-true-at-all film of Eddie the Eagle's life |
Director: Dexter Fletcher
Cast: Taron Egerton (‘Eddie’ Edwards), Hugh Jackman (Bronson
Peary), Iris Berben (Petra), Keith Allen (Terry Edwards), Jo Hartley (Janette
Edwards), Tim McInnerny (Dustin Target), Mark Benton (Richmond), Jim Broadbent
(BBC Commentator), Christopher Walken (Warren Sharp), Rune Temte (Bjørn), Edvin
Endre (Matti Nykänen)
Watching Eddie the
Eagle, it’s interesting to think that Edwards was ahead of his time. An
unqualified ski jumper with a certain natural talent and a lot of dedication,
his unspun, naïve enthusiasm effectively made him a perfect YouTube sensation,
15 years before that term existed. His joyous reactions and “just pleased to be
here” manner while coming last in two ski-jumping competitions at the Olympics
meant the public couldn’t get enough of him (then or now it seems) and he’s
probably about the only thing anyone can really remember about the 1988 Winter
Olympics.
I found my heart completely unwarmed by this lamely
predictable film, a virtual remake of Cool
Runnings and Rocky, which can
barely move from scene to scene without tripping over clichés. In other sports
films, the snobbery against the underdog feels unjust because we know they
deserve to be there. Edwards doesn’t deserve to be there, and doesn’t prove
himself anything other than a brave novelty act. Perverse as it sounds, the one
area where the film deviates from its predictable formula is the part that
makes everything else not really work.
It’s not a particularly funny film. That may be partly
because every single comic beat in it is taken from somewhere else, but joke
after joke falls flat. Scenes meander towards limp conclusions that can be seen
coming a mile off. Every single character is either a cliché, mildly annoying
or both. Jackman strolls through the film barely trying. Taron Egerton plays
Eddie as virtually a man child, a naïve mummy’s boy, an innocent in the world
of men, curiously sexless, but a cheery enthusiast with a never-say-never
attitude. However, I often found him less endearing and more mildly irritating.
Virtually nothing in the film is actually true. This doesn’t
necessarily matter, but I felt it made the film slightly dishonest. It leaves us
with the impression Edwards was set to go on to success in his career – he
wasn’t. It doesn’t mention the Olympic committee changed the rules to prevent
amateurs taking part in this highly dangerous sport at this level. It doesn’t
even begin to mention that almost the entire cast are invented supporting
characters, or that many of the real characters (such as Edwards’ father) have
had their personalities totally reimagined.
It also reshuffles the truth to make Edwards seem far more
incompetent and unlikely than he actually was. In reality an accomplished
amateur athlete and skier who just missed the Olympic team, he’s here
reinvented as a barely proficient, uncoordinated klutz, a buffoon on skis.
Egerton’s otherworldly naivety (at times his childish outlook on the world
borders on the mentally deficient) is to be honest rather grating. By hammering
up his ineptitude, it’s hard to really think that he should be clinging to these dreams that he’s not suited to perform.
Channel 4 run a TV reality ski-jump show called The Jump. Several celebrities who have
taken part in it have suffered serious injuries. With that in mind, is it
really wrong to wonder if a sport isn’t right in saying “the unqualified and
the amateur shouldn’t be attempting this”? Yes the Olympics is partly about
competing in the right manner – but shouldn’t that mean also protecting people
from themselves?
The one slightly brave move the film makes is to briefly toy
with the idea that Edwards is fundamentally misguided. Before the Olympics
begins, his trainer pleads with him to continue his training, wait four years
and qualify as a proper athlete rather than a novelty, to have a future of
several Olympics rather than cheating into one. Edwards (and the film) ignores
him, but I found I was thinking “you know what, he’s right”. The film never
manages to remove from Edwards the whiff of the joke act.
Give it a miss. Watch Cool Runnings instead. That’s full of invention too of course, but the invention is truer to the facts and the spirit of the truth, and the film itself is far funnier and more satisfying than this one.
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