Le grand miracle

À mi-chemin entre la comédie sentimentale et le reportage environnementaliste, le traitement manque d'originalité.

Dommage que Ken Kwapis ait été incapable de greffer une ligne dramatique plus originale à cette histoire d'exception.

Ce qui avait toutes les allures d'une drabe comédie romantico-dramatique à saveur écologiste s'avère finalement un bon petit film, certes dégoulinant de bons sentiments, mais construit avec brio par le réalisateur Ken Kwapis.

A whale of a cast helps bring this energetically expansive true-life rescue tale home.

Des baleines, des histoires d'amour, des rires et des serrements de gorge constituent les ingrédients faisant du film Le grand miracle une recette savoureuse.

Du coup, Big Miracle n'est qu'un bonbon à mâcher en attendant quelque chose de mieux, un amuse-gueule interchangeable qui a la même odeur et la même saveur que le précédent.

For a kids' movie, Big Miracle has a lot of big ideas, and, occasionally, like the people on screen, it seems to forget about the whales entirely, although not while Rachel is around: Her paean to the connection between whale and human ("we get scared, we're vulnerable, we need help") is a Hallmark moment that plays like parody.

The biggest and most miraculous creatures in Big Miracle are almost drowned out by the clutter of lackluster human stories injected into an already compelling drama.

It's not like Big Miracle is aiming for anything much bigger than childish insights, and the movie's meager laughs probably would only appeal to kids, even though the plot takes you through a labyrinth of bureaucratic interests and the entire concept of a "media blitz." It's ultimately too naive for the tricky grown-up issues it tackles, but not smart or sweet enough to get away with it.

Big Miracle gets off to a shaky start, but once revved up, it becomes an involving work-against-the-clock-and-the-odds action movie.