Big Miracle

directed by Ken Kwapis (2012)

Spoilers!  (but it's based on a true story so I dunno, I think that automatically disqualifies me from having to make a spoiler warning. You're getting one anyway.  You're welcome.)

Blah.  This is what you get when Hollywood messes with a true life animal rescue story.  It feels like a Disney flick, but it's a Universal production that's based on the true events around an incident in the late 80's when some Grey Whales became trapped under the ice in Alaska.  It's so calculated and crappy heartwarming with product placement and good people coming together because they love the whales.... and for mutual benefit too.  This movie was made to capitalise on people's love of animals and besides,  saving whales is such a noble cause right?  Of course I'm being terribly cynical, but geez, even though it's got a Free Willy redemptive ending, it's altogether a bad feeling flick. 

It stars John Krasinski as a news reporter whiling away in the sticks, and Drew Barrymore is his shrill hippie granola Cassandra ex-girlfriend, who screeches about environmental disaster while everyone tunes her out. The Office dude is interviewing her in one scene where she's saying, "Eat your fish before it's so full of mercury it kills you!",  and  "In 15 years you'll be drinking bottled water because the tap water is poison too!" He tries to get her to tone the doom down saying,  "Everyone just changed the channel!"  Yeah,  the truth is too scary eh?  Then she talks about how whales are just like us, swimming in the ocean fishlike people who are scared.  And we're scared too,  just most people are busy buying shit so they don't feel that anxiety, and they're caught up working hard so they can make money so they can buy more shit and this cycle takes up all their energy and ability to care about anything outside world of excess consumption.

There were some indigenous folk in the film but the focus was on the white people and their white people problems.  It's actually more fitting into the romantic comedy mode than having much to do with the whales.  The romance with the pilot and the White House rep was apparently real, but much of the stuff related to the whales wasn't.  For instance, there were more than the three whales, and the reason they don't all make it is because of human error, not that the baby whale got respiratory issues.  They were accidentally playing killer whale sounds and these sounds scared the whales away from the breathing holes since Killer Whales prey on Grey Whales.  And nobody dived down to untangle a whale's tail from netting.  Though I have to admit, that scene choked me up.  Aw, poor whale being all tangled.  That's not right!  Yeah, the movie knows how to push buttons. Another thing that bugged me, is that it kinda sucks that it's such a white person movie when so much of the action was obviously Indigenous.   I have to admit it's got some balance for what it is though, because I recognise that it's made for the broadest possible audience, mainly American, and that's mostly white people, and they only seem to care about seeing stories about other white people, so whatever I guess.  It is what it is.  It's got some romance and some whales and some Alaskan neechis who are actually played by the local people.  So I give it props for what NDN content there is.

There was a  guy in a whale suit promoting the Vancouver Aquarium and a woman handed $1 off admission coupons to everyone going in, but the best part would have to be when the aquarium lady said we could stop global warming by using less energy and taking a bus, or shutting off a light.  Yeah right, That's the Big Miracle there, if people turning off a light bulb could add up enough to make a difference.   Every little bit counts I guess.  It's not like there are some people in the world consuming crazy disproportionate amounts of resources.  Nah, it'll take a whole lot more than a few light bulbs going off to change the current trajectory of global warming and resource depletion.  I don't think I'll live to see the paradigm shift required for significant change, but I think I'm seeing the beginnings of it, and this movie's attempt to cash in on that ideological sea change is a reflection of that process, and actually represents progress of some sort.

It's not a super awesome good flick, but it shows that people have their hearts in the right place, and that we can cooperate.  It's a family thing, that will appeal to moms and dads and their kids too.  If you don't think on things too hard after, you'll probably come away with a good feeling.