Big Miracle

Big Miracle seems to have all the makings of a heart-felt, tear-jerking, family-friendly movie.

Start with the beautiful-yet-treacherous scenery of an Alaskan ice shelf; add Drew Barrymore, John Krasinski and Kristen Bell, all rugged-up in puffy jackets and beanies; and give them the seemingly insurmountable task of saving a family of 40 tonne whales.

Sounds like a winner to me.

I haven’t seen this one yet – but going by the title, I’m guessing that the whales are indeed successfully saved. One could also safely guess that the whole experience will lead the central characters to evolve, and become better people.

Drew and John’s characters are apparently estranged loves, so I’m sure they will also renew their affections in some way too… And who wouldn’t love that?

So, in order for this movie to be a winner in the way that I have described, it’s clear that the story will need to deviate quite substantially from the source material.

You see, ‘Big Miracle’ is based on the book Freeing the Whales by Tom Rose – which details the true story of ‘Operation Breakthrough’ in 1988.

I was two in 1988, so I had no idea what Operation Breakthrough was all about – but from a quick Google, it seems that the whole thing didn’t play out like a typical Hollywood script.

It will be interesting to see just how much the film glossed over some the stories more ‘realistic’ elements.