Eddie the Eagle

Eddie the Eagle

Rating 7 out of 10

Back in the 80s there was a young man in England that had braces on his legs to correct bad knees.  He had nearly zero athletic ability, yet after watching the Olympics on tv he was determined he would somehow make it to the Olympics.  Not win a gold medal.  He didn't set the bar that high.  He just wanted to make it to the Olympics.  This was a true story.  I kinda remember the press talking about Eddie back in the 1988 Olympics.

He tries several different events that might take him to the Olympics before settling on being a ski jumper.  It did not matter that most ski jumpers start at the age of six and he was in his early twenties.  Nor did it matter to Eddie that England had not sent a single ski jumper to the Olympics in fifty plus years.  Or that the English Olympic committee thought he was a joke and wanted nothing to do with him embarrassing the country at any event.  The problem was since they had no other ski jumpers not much was needed to qualify.  Eddie gets a loan from his mother and heads to Canada to learn how to jump.  There he finds a begrudging ex-jumper (Hugh Jackman) who likes him but sees more of a chance of making it to the ER than the Olympics.  He likes Eddie (Taron Egerton) and of course eventually comes around.

This is a sweet and harmless movie.  It won't set your hair on fire nor will you regret seeing it.  I was entertained and cheered a few times when I mostly knew the outcome.  It's a good movie you can take the family to.