Movie Review: The Miracle Match
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What Parents Should Know
Parents should know that this soccer drama includes racial
tension, and characters use derogatory phrases about one
another's culture (including "dago," "kraut," and
"voodoo-hound"). There is some whistling at and ogling of
women, but the men are mostly respectful of the women in their
lives. The final match includes some emotional intensity that
may be too stressful for young viewers. The message here is
positive: Believe in yourself, and you will achieve
greatness.
Families can talk about how each family member pursues his or her dreams. What do you do when you feel discouraged? How did Frank, Walter, Pee Wee, and the gang handle disappointments? This is also a good opportunity to talk to kids about racial and cultural slurs and tolerance. How did Joe and Frank work out their religious differences?
Common Sense Media Review
Bend It Like Beckham
was about soccer the way
The Breakfast Club was about detention -- sure, it
started there, but it went different places with it. You'll
find no such diversions in THE MIRACLE MATCH, which mulishly
sticks to its subject matter and the sport at the center of
it.
Miracle Match tells the story of the harrowing 1950 World Cup match between a rag-tag group of Americans and the British squad, which was then the best team in the world. The film starts in St. Louis' Italian-American enclave The Hill. Frank Borghi (Gerard Butler), Frank "Pee Wee" Wallace (Jay Rodan), and Charlie "Gloves" Colombo (Costas Mandylor) form the center of the neighborhood's pick-up soccer league. When it's announced that try-outs for the U.S. World Cup soccer team will be held in St. Louis, the guys are excited and scared. They don't want to humiliate themselves by losing, but they're also excited at the prospect of playing and winning the game that's so important in their lives.
But in The Miracle Match the imperative to play is more than a competitive one -- it's one of national pride. Over and over again, the film connects representing the United States on the soccer field to fighting for the country on the battlefield. In McCarthy-era 1950s, this is no small pressure. At one point, a team member asks Frank, "Are you a Dago, or are you an American?" And right before the game against the British team, Admiral Higgins (Bill Smitrovich) hands each member his jersey, preceded by listing his military rank in World War II. Done on a military base to soaring music, it may incite eye-rolling in teens who are already familiar with the pressure on them to serve their country.
Unfortunately, like so much in this patina-covered film, The Miracle Match lays on the patriotism thick and heavy, smothering it. The whole thing is designed to make you cry with sentiment. Instead, it becomes schlocky fast. There's the patriotism. There's the ad-naseum speeches about the virtues of the game. ("It's the most democratic of games," intones Patrick Stewart as Dent McSkimming. "It's the people's game. It's your people's game.") There are the repeated lectures to believe in themselves. While the movie beats you over the head with these ideologies, it simultaneously sucks the life out of the film and makes it just about the game instead of about the guys who played it.
