The is film, directed by Dexter Fletcher, is intended to be a film-good comic adventure. Make no mistake it is loosely, and very loosely, based on the true story of Eddie Edwards, who if you are reading this sat in the UK is very well known. A daunting task for the director and the lead. the very talented Taron Egerton, for Eddie is very much around and still pops up from time to time on our TV screens. So much so that many viewers probably felt the know as much about him as the director and actor. Very dodgy ground to walk on for film-makers.
It is therefore to Egerton and Fletcher’s credit that the portrayal of ‘Eddie’ is kept just about onside. The actor and director could easily have slipped over into pastiche and broad comedy and therefore insulted the former ski-jumper. At the time, Edwards himself said that although he wasn’t a champion skier he was taking the competition seriously and wanted and was trying to do the best he could despite finishing way, way, behind the more ‘professional’ skiers. Although comic in tone and although our ‘hero’ is made out to be a bit awkward, naive and bumbling there is enough about the presentation and the way Egerton plays the man to suggest a certain heroic, if somewhat foolhardy, stubborn determination that should not be taken lightly.
To offset this of course we must have broadly draw baddies, the GB Olympic committee members are missing their twirling moustaches and the nasty foreign Euro skiers are to a man unpleasant and boorish. Never mind in real life Italian skiers gave equipment to Eddie to help him. Equally mysterious is the appearance, particularly at the end of the film, of the all-to-real and hell-raising Finnish ski-jump champion Matti Nykanen who turned into some sage-like figure near the end. Truly strange. Well it would have been except for the walk-out, no need for this at all, part of Christopher Walken. The film really does play some odd cards over the playing time and none more so than the King of New York.
Despite my reservations about the need to have sign-posted and clear ‘baddies’ in the film and the well-worn path the film treads, the acting on show is good. Egerton is just on the right side of not doing a comic impression and is certainly a talented actor and his chemistry with the always likable Hugh Jackman is plain to see and this and the light frothy story keeps the whole show afloat.
Clearly no one is trying to make a hard-hitting treatise on the alienation of a true amateur in what is supposedly an amateur sporting event and the moral and financial implications this throws up, that is another film for another crowd. No this is fun, likable and with an outcoming that is heart-warming and positive. Sometimes that is all a film should be, So I say Eddie The Eagle has done its job and I’m sure that is all the makes set out to do with the film in the first place.
You can certainly watch Eddie soar once more in Calgary, just remember the real Eddie said the film is probably 5% true to his story and you won’t be disappointed
Review by DeletedBlockedParent2017-01-31T17:31:06Z
The is film, directed by Dexter Fletcher, is intended to be a film-good comic adventure. Make no mistake it is loosely, and very loosely, based on the true story of Eddie Edwards, who if you are reading this sat in the UK is very well known. A daunting task for the director and the lead. the very talented Taron Egerton, for Eddie is very much around and still pops up from time to time on our TV screens. So much so that many viewers probably felt the know as much about him as the director and actor. Very dodgy ground to walk on for film-makers.
It is therefore to Egerton and Fletcher’s credit that the portrayal of ‘Eddie’ is kept just about onside. The actor and director could easily have slipped over into pastiche and broad comedy and therefore insulted the former ski-jumper. At the time, Edwards himself said that although he wasn’t a champion skier he was taking the competition seriously and wanted and was trying to do the best he could despite finishing way, way, behind the more ‘professional’ skiers. Although comic in tone and although our ‘hero’ is made out to be a bit awkward, naive and bumbling there is enough about the presentation and the way Egerton plays the man to suggest a certain heroic, if somewhat foolhardy, stubborn determination that should not be taken lightly.
To offset this of course we must have broadly draw baddies, the GB Olympic committee members are missing their twirling moustaches and the nasty foreign Euro skiers are to a man unpleasant and boorish. Never mind in real life Italian skiers gave equipment to Eddie to help him. Equally mysterious is the appearance, particularly at the end of the film, of the all-to-real and hell-raising Finnish ski-jump champion Matti Nykanen who turned into some sage-like figure near the end. Truly strange. Well it would have been except for the walk-out, no need for this at all, part of Christopher Walken. The film really does play some odd cards over the playing time and none more so than the King of New York.
Despite my reservations about the need to have sign-posted and clear ‘baddies’ in the film and the well-worn path the film treads, the acting on show is good. Egerton is just on the right side of not doing a comic impression and is certainly a talented actor and his chemistry with the always likable Hugh Jackman is plain to see and this and the light frothy story keeps the whole show afloat.
Clearly no one is trying to make a hard-hitting treatise on the alienation of a true amateur in what is supposedly an amateur sporting event and the moral and financial implications this throws up, that is another film for another crowd. No this is fun, likable and with an outcoming that is heart-warming and positive. Sometimes that is all a film should be, So I say Eddie The Eagle has done its job and I’m sure that is all the makes set out to do with the film in the first place.
You can certainly watch Eddie soar once more in Calgary, just remember the real Eddie said the film is probably 5% true to his story and you won’t be disappointed