Mystery, Alaska

Starring: Russell Crowe, Hank Azaria, Mary McCormack, Lolita Davidovich, Ron Eldard, Colm Meaney, Maury Chaykin, Burt Reynolds, Michael Buie, Kevin Durand, Scott Grimes, Jason Gray-Stanford, Adam Beach, Cameron Bancroft, Michael McKean, Rachel Wilson, Mike Myers
Directed by: Jay Roach
Rating: R
Genre: Comedy, Drama, Sports
1999

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: The residents of a small town in Alaska are shocked when the NHL decides to put the New York Rangers against their Saturday pond hockey club.

Review:

Tim: Director Jay Roach takes a fun idea that's quite implausible and injects enough humanity and emotion to come out with a fairly solid outing. Mystery, Alaska offers a certainly far-fetched story, but the experience of watching it helps to counteract some of the weaknesses inherent in the idea.

The most implausible aspect of the story is that the New York Rangers would travel to Alaska to play a group of weekend pond hockey players. I know this game is loosely based on actual events from 1905, but there's not a prayer of a chance of something like this happening today. It's beyond the realm of possibility. While it does create a fun scenario, the movie is constantly nagged by the fact that nothing we see on screen could ever happen in our current world. This isn't to say a storied NHL franchise could never play an amateur team, it's just incredibly unlikely. The film tries to convince us that it's possible, but the movie never fully shakes the feeling of incredulity here. That's one of its biggest flaws.

Luckily, the movie does enough to mitigate the flaw away from being fatal. This is most readily accomplished by bringing the fictional town of Mystery, Alaska to life. I've actually been to Alaska and I felt like this movie depicted (to a certain extent) what life is like there- the small sleepy towns, the obsession with hockey, the constant, brutal cold. However, even if you've never been to the northernmost state, this is exactly what the collective consciousness thinks about Alaska. Now, this isn't just about playing into our stereotypes- the town of Mystery comes to life through the vivid, realistic portrayal of its citizens. We see the judge who seems to believe he's better than most people in the town and is especially hard on his son. We see the rural sheriff who's more likely to have a discussion with a suspect than clamp handcuffs on him. We see a carefree womanizer who lives only for the moment. We see Inuit townsfolk (who unfortunately are shortchanged here) and their interactions with others. We see young, talented kids whose idea of the world is pretty narrow. We see a member of the town who escaped years ago, off to do bigger and better things. Each of these characters are infused with their own personality and character, to the point where you start to feel like you're a member of their small community. That is the biggest strength of this film.

It helps that the cast is fairly strong. Russell Crowe is good in the lead role, but I didn't find him to be one of the more fascinating characters. I certainly felt his sadness at certain points in the film, but I never loved his character. Hank Azaria laughed a little too much, but I identified with his character and could understand his point of view. Mary McCormack brought great, down-to-earth warmth to her role. Colm Meaney felt believable as the Mayor, and Burt Reynolds was strong as the judge. Even more so than the well-known names, the rest of the cast all gave strong performances that felt authentic.

The hockey game itself is the climax of the film. The sports scenes are well shot, and they do engage you in the game. Even though the weekend players wouldn't score a single goal against the professional team (in all likelihood), it was still fun to suspend our disbelief a bit. The movie did work hard to convince us that they could even stand a chance. The National Anthem with Little Richard was a great example of a somewhat believable way they could even the playing field. Still, to enjoy this movie, you have to turn off the disbelieving part of your brain to enjoy the game. All in all, for a completely implausible event, it came across well on screen.

Mystery, Alaska has too many built in flaws for Jay Roach to overcome them all. This had very little chance of being a truly great movie. However, despite its shortcomings, the film is enjoyable and entertaining. The characters are rich, complex, and believable. I had a fun time watching this movie and would undoubtedly consider it worthwhile.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating- 7



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