Right. First things first. Why do some parents allow their kids to run amok in the cinema?
I know it's only a minority but when it happens it is absolutely infuriating.
Today, my 'enjoyment' of Big Miracle was dampened by three young kids who kept charging from side to side of the front row and then dashing off to the toilet.
Their dimwit dad who was sitting behind me said absolutely nothing.
Now, after some bad experiences in the past, Mrs W absolutely insists I do not confront people in the cinema but, honestly, I wanted to take the kids by the ear and sling 'em out (and before anyone calls the NSPCC, I am not a man who is prone to violence in any form).
Anyway, on with the film and an adaptation of the 1989 book Freeing The Whales which described Operation Breakthrough, the international effort to free three whales trapped in ice in Alaska.
Big Miracle (sort of gives the game away in the title doesn't it?) stars the most likeable man in movies, John Krasinski and Drew Barrymore.
Krasinski plays a TV reporter who breaks the story of the whales and Barrymore, his former girlfriend, who also happens to be a Greenpeace activist (it really looks like she has grown her eyebrows especially for the part).
The incident, which happened for real in 1988, was in Point Barrow in the Inuit heartland and attracted attention from all over the world and even had influence in the presidential election.
Big Miracle is a reasonably faithful telling of events although I couldn't understand why the whales, who were named Bonnet, Crossbeak and Bone at the time had their names changed to Fred, Wilma and Bam bam for Hollywood purposes.
The sense of drama was built nicely to the point that one of my Twitter followers claimed that not only she but other people in her screening were in tears.
I was not. Frankly, I couldn't really see why such a fuss was made over the whales when kiddies were starving by their hundreds of thousands in Africa.
But I also recognise that animal lovers will not see it that way and will love this film.
As for the actors, Barrymore does passionate and indignant well, Krasinski is funny and sympathetic and Ted Danson, who plays an oil baron, looks 85 (incidentally, he has been a keen campaigner on oceanic environmental issues for years).
Laughs: none
Jumps: none
Vomit: none
Nudity: way too cold for that!
Overall rating: 6/10
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