Gross Misconduct: The Life of Brian Spencer

This is a surprisingly good account of the less-than-perfect life of former pro hockey player Brian Spencer. If you've never heard of him, don't worry, for I had never heard of him either, and I managed to enjoy the movie. While it's by no means great, it does prove to be good throughout, and it makes quite effective use of old clips from "Hockey Night In Canada". This film would probably be even more popular with those NHL fans who remember Spencer from the 1970's, but it still manages to be a solid movie for those who wouldn't know any of the facts in this movie from fiction.

This is a haunting yarn about the real life misadventures of NHL hockey player Brian "Spinner" Spencer. Life in major league hockey is pretty heady stuff, but it is far different than the 'real' world. Whenever a player, particularly a great one, leaves the "Bigs" and has to cope in reality again, it can be a rude awakening.

In this story, Spencer's father is shown on a parallel track bound for hellishness. Along the way, there are a lot of thrills, spills, chills and yes....even pills. In the end, Spencer's life seems to have been vanity and chasing the wind.

Screenwriter Paul Gross took a good portion of the original novel and molded it into a fascinating bio-dramatic examination of Spencer. I think Atom Egoyan did a fabulous job as director. Loved seeing hockey personalities like Davey Keon, John McLellan and Greg Polis dramatized.

The 1960s Hockey Night In Canada opening (complete with that wonderful theme) is the best highlight of the film for me, with the haunting voices of Billy Hewitt, Ward Cornell, Red Storey and intertwining vintage HNIC clips coming in a close second. Seeing the Tommy Hunter clip brought back memories, too. Tommy's goodbye always filled me with anticipation of the coming game, much as it must have for Spencer's father.

This isn't the best hockey movie ever made, but its the most gripping bio-drama made about a hockey player. If it ever comes out on video, I recommend renting it.

Good tv movie i remember seeing about 10 years ago along with "Net Worth." Good to see that it was done by arguably the best canadian director around

today, Atom Egoyan. Love the way the chapters work and how the fathers story intertwines into brian's (kinda like memento with the normal scenes and then lenny b&w on the phone in his room). also liked how the old classic NHL footage was mixed in (especially for the very last frames). dont know how accurate it was but ive been to ft. st. james and like most small canadian towns, it takes pride in its successful hockey players, brians being one of a few. i liked the parallel between young and old brian and how the almost seemed the same (young brian more mature in some scenes). i would rate this pretty good for a tv movie and a cbc movie. was glad to see that egoyan improved alot from this in his later works likely because he had more creative control. only complaint is the hockey scene which just didnt feel 60's-70's "old-time-hockey." thats probly cause egoyan being from middle east and that likely never played hockey and i think shouldve found some way to do these scenes better by cloning the old stock nhl footage. i found it good to see (if u follow the nhl now) how the nhl expansion effected hockey and its players. guys like spencer were shipped round "journeymen" and really found themselves in poor cities that couldnt (and still cant support) their teams. finally i just gotta add how much i love brian's story of meeting bobby orr.