The Miracle Season

Perhaps one of the most frustrating things about movies based on true events is when the work itself fails to live up to the story inspiring it. "The Miracle Season" is one of these films. It's an overly-melodramatic, poorly-assembled hunk of cookie-cutter filmmaking that tells the moving story of how one Iowa high school volleyball team rallied to win their state championship after the tragic death of their inspirational captain, Caroline "Line" Found (Danika Yarosh).

The sensational 15-game streak of the West High School volleyball team towards an unexpected championship is an engaging example of anecdotes from Middle America that often don't travel far beyond local news coverage. However, the film fails to balance winning cinematic structure with its overwhelming effort to honor Line's legacy.

Much of the "miracle season" is glossed over with a formulaic sports montage set to Demi Lovato's "Confident," as the film spends far more time invested in the grieving readjustment to life by Line's friends and family. There's her father (William Hurt), her coach (Helen Hunt), her best friend and teammate (Erin Moriarty) and essentially every other citizen of Iowa City, Iowa. At least that's how the film, unfortunately, frames its approach - the world revolved around Caroline Found, and after her accidental death, this universe came to a screeching halt.

Viewing this strictly as a narrative piece of cinema, "The Miracle Season" seems tailor-made to an audience that needs their emotion and empathy force-fed to them. There's not much here that distinguishes the film from a basic cable drama, and the ultimate power of the West High School volleyball team's victory feels lost in the simplistic storytelling and scene structure.

Discovering their story through this film feels no different than discovering it through the 14-minute special on HBO's "Real Sports." This tale is far better suited for the documentary format, which "The Miracle Season" spends the entirety of its credits doing anyway with real-life photos, videos, and factoids about the people we just saw being portrayed (along with information about the Live Like Line Foundation).

I get it. This movie's heart is 100% in the right place, but as a piece of filmic storytelling it ends up spiking its intentions directly into the floor. It serves primarily as a vessel for showcasing the stirring inspirational inheritance that Caroline's memory left behind for both her teammates and her town, and it sacrifices believable dialogue, dramatic tension and interesting direction as a result. It is possible to tell a beautiful story through the funnel of a crappy film, and "The Miracle Season" is a shining example of this unfortunate duality.