Film Review: The Miracle Season

If you haven’t heard of The Miracle Season, don’t worry because neither have I before I actually sat down and watched it. It tells the true story of Iowa City West High School volleyball team attempting to win the state championship after the sudden death of their star player, which happened back in 2011. It’s clearly a modest production, filled with lesser-knowns aside from the two big names in Helen Hunt, and William Hurt. It’s directed by Sean McNamara, whose biggest hit was Soul Surfer, which rests in the middle of a filmography that consists of almost exclusively family films. The filmmakers here may not have the budget that Disney or any other major studio has, but they make up for it in spirit.

The film is by all accounts, a very basic, by-the-numbers, feel-good sports movie. You know every beat that is going to happen, almost precisely to the second if you pay attention to the heavy handed musical cues. When we first meet Caroline (Danika Yarosh), she’s a bubbly, lively, and animated individual, almost to the point of obnoxiousness. However, it’s a very familiar obnoxiousness. You probably know someone, or may even be friends with a person just like her. You recognize how that kind of person can brighten your day because it seems like all they ever do is bring joy to people around them.

So, when she dies, you understand why the community is so affected. I remember when I was in high school, and there was a senior student – I was a sophomore at the time – who passed away when her vehicle was crushed by a semi-truck on her way to complete an AP exam. We were all informed a couple hours into the school day, and it left many people, more than you’d expect, completely shook by it. I didn’t know her personally, but I knew people who did, and those memories came flooding back when I was seeing how well it captures that feeling that you would see in a school environment when someone who was friendly with so many people gets taken away in an instant.

We experience most of this through Caroline’s best friend, Kelly (Erin Moriarty), who was already struggling in the sport, making it even more of a challenge when their coach, Kathy Bresnahan (Helen Hunt), pushes her into a position on the team that she is unfamiliar with, leading to some friction between her and the other teammates who feel she is holding them back. And every now and then, we cut to Ernie (William Hurt), who not only lost his daughter, Caroline, but also his wife, Ellyn (Jillian Fargey) from some unspecified disease merely days after the daughter. He appears to have a crisis of faith, but it’s an arc that is mostly sidelined, and completed almost completely offscreen. But his moments with Kelly are very effective.

The filmmaking isn’t particularly bad here, it’s simply very workmanlike, with moments here and there that lean heavy on the sentimentality. What ultimately brings the film to life, if only somewhat, is the performances. There’s an emotional truth that the actors all bring here, and they bring layers in places where there may not have been any on paper. While some of the techniques used by the filmmakers are admittedly heavy handed, the performances always rang true to me. I was deeply moved at points, and it was because of that I found myself rooting for the team as the film went along.

The Miracle Season may not be a great movie, but I do think it is a fine one, and that isn’t a bad thing. When we watch most sports movies, we know exactly what we’re going to get. This isn’t a genre about surprises, or hidden meanings, or anything like that. We go to these movies time and time again because we have this inherent desire to root for the underdog, and that’s exactly what the movie accomplished with me. The Miracle Season definitely skews younger in terms of demographics, and that’s OK. I think little girls can watch this movie, and they will find themselves much more compelled and invested and surprised than I was. Plus, you don’t see a lot of volleyball in these movies, so I thought that was pretty cool.