Eddie the Eagle is a biopic sports comedy-drama directed by Dexter Fletcher. A young Eddie Edwards dreams big of becoming an athlete in the Summer Olympics. However his body doesn’t agree. After failing for years and about to give up hope, he gets inspiration from watching ski jumpers. Eddie’s (Egerton) new dream is to be a ski jumper in the Winter Olympics and his resolve is stronger than ever. After self-teaching only takes him so far, he tries to get Logan burned out former ski jumper Bronson Peary (Jackman), to coach him the rest of the way. This is the story of Eddie “The Eagle” Edwards, a British ski jumper.
The film is a bit average in the biopic sports genre. There isn’t anything horrible, but there isn’t anything spectacular about the film. Egerton and Jackman and the rest of the cast do a fairly good job with what the script gives them. As the period of the film took place in the 80’s, the music was very similar to a lot of uplifting scores in that era. I’m not sure if that’s a good thing. It wasn’t 80’s music back then when those movies came out. It was just uplifting music. For me personally, I just found it made those moments cheesier. Eddie the Eagle is more focused on the heartfelt message than accuracy of the real story, but that doesn’t detract from the film. It has the same tone of biopics about underdogs like Rudy and Cool Runnings.
Eddie the Eagle is an average film all-around. The script isn’t amazing, but there’s enough entertainment to warrant a watch if you enjoy sports biopics. There aren’t many movies about ski jumping and this will do the trick if you enjoy rooting for an underdog.
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Running time: 1 hr 46 min
Director: Dexter Fletcher
Screenplay: Sean Macaulay and Simon Kelton
Cast: Taron Egerton, Hugh Jackman, Christopher Walken, Iris Berben and Jim Broadbent
Music: Matthew Margeson
Cinematography: George Richmond