Written by: Jack Amiel, Michael Begler (screenplay); Thomas Rose (book)
I usually don't buy in to heartwarming, feel-good, family movies. But this one far exceeded my expectations.
The year is 1988, and when a family of gray whales gets trapped in an icy bay, it's up to a local news reporter (Krasinski) and his nature loving ex-girlfriend (Barrymore) to try to save them. With the help of the local whaling community, an oil executive (Danson) desperate for good press, and a visit from a Russian ice-breaker, they put together a desperate plan to save the whales from certain death and set them free to migrate to warmer waters.
This movie is a total cornball. But I can't seem to find a reason to hate it, the way I feel like I should. What saves this movie is how absolutely genuine it feels, from top to bottom. Everybody involved seemed to be trying to make a good, wholesome movie. And they did. Had there been a single moment of self-reflection, or a single wink from any of the actors, the charade would have been over. Instead, it seems they managed to produce exactly the type of movie they wanted to make, no more and no less.
The word "wholesome" keeps coming to mind. I'm not going to argue that it's Oscar worthy (because it's not). But it's a decent movie. and a half-step above a lot of other junk out there.
(Technical note: I labeled this movie as "streaming," but I actually viewed it using On Demand.)
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