Director: Dexter Fletcher
Year Released: 2016
Rating: 2.0
"Eddie" Edwards (Taron Egerton), who comes from a working class English background, dreams of being a ski jumper for England (!) in the Winter Olympics ... except he's incredibly inexperienced at it and requires the tutelage of once-great Bronson Peary (Hugh Jackman), who spends his days drinking and plowing snow. Follows all too closely the standard Underdog Narrative, much to its detriment (plus it takes many liberties with the 'real story'): there is no short supply of people to tell him to quit or mock him (his father, European skiiers, Jackman, the Olympic Committee, etc.), there are many moments of failure (including being hospitalized) and, at the conclusion, there's that good ol' redemption (he didn't care if he won, he just wanted to be there; for Matti Nykänen, anything less than greatness was unacceptable). Egerton does fine work as the plucky farsighted zero-to-hero and Jackman is decent as his Mickey Goldmill ... it's just too bad it's so generic.
