Ponderously sincere but it does tell a good story.

Full Review | Feb 10, 2012

It is a laborious, sentimental drama featuring a self-parodic performance from Drew Barrymore, based on a TV news event that briefly gripped the US in 1988.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Feb 9, 2012

Much better than the poster or trailer suggests.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Feb 9, 2012

By-the-book dialogue and lame performances do the film no favours but, hey, worse things happen at sea.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Feb 7, 2012

The sledgehammer emoting should let you know you're in a family drama.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Feb 6, 2012

I've got to say, Big Miracle is a heck of a lot more entertaining and enjoyable than I remotely figured it was going to be before I stepped into the theatre.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Feb 5, 2012

This is a movie that didn't grab me at first, but it pummeled me into enjoying it by the end.

Full Review | Feb 3, 2012

Big Miracle is all formula, but with just enough savvy to temper the gentle-spiritedness and qualify it as that rare family film with an emotional manipulativeness that doesn't leave a sick slick in the mouth.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Feb 3, 2012

If you're looking for a passable film to take the kids to this weekend, Miracle offers a smart enough take on its feel-good plot to keep adult viewers tuned in.

Full Review | Feb 3, 2012

"Big Miracle" might be subtitled, "How Hollywood Turned a Real Story Into Bogus Fiction."

Full Review | Original Score: 1/4 | Feb 3, 2012

Big Miracle is not one of those whale tales that leaves the audience blubbering, but it's open to the allure of the imposing creatures, which resemble long boulders that have come to life.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Feb 3, 2012

"Big Miracle" shouldn't really work, but it does.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Feb 3, 2012

Cold War-era bonding over whales? It would sound utterly absurd if it weren't based on fact. And that's part of what makes this movie fun for adults.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Feb 3, 2012

Too naive for the tricky grown-up issues it tackles, but not smart or sweet enough to get away with it.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Feb 2, 2012

Given the abundance of one-dimensional human portrayals, it becomes apparent that a documentary on the subject might have been more powerful.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Feb 2, 2012

"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.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Feb 2, 2012

It is a whale of a comic tale, if also one overly crowded with characters and incidents.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Feb 2, 2012

Instead of this being a story of a bunch of lovely people doing a lovely thing, it's rather the story of average people who become much better people as a result of doing a lovely thing, even though some start out doing it for less than noble reasons.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Feb 2, 2012

There may not be a second of say, Whale Rider's lyricism (that's still the best whale movie out there), but this energetic family movie is less insipid than it looks.

Full Review | Feb 2, 2012

It's amazing a movie hasn't been made about these Reagan-era events before now. But the enjoyable "Big Miracle" offers perspective, balancing sentiment with healthy skepticism about human motivations.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Feb 2, 2012