Alex & Me

This is a fantasy tale so naturally some of the plot elements are just that--fantasy. However, I was pleasantly surprised at the humor and feel-good aspects of the movie, but it also can be a little too sugary sweet and predictable for my tastes.

Siena Agudong gives a most natural performance here as thirteen-year-old Reagan, who idolizes the soccer great Alex Morgan. When Reagan hits her head on a piece of furniture, one of Reagan's posters of Morgan comes to life and begins to mentor Reagan in her dreams of becoming a really good player. I might mention that Morgan is supremely gorgeous and a great athlete but her acting is a little stiff at this point.

Overall, if you take this movie, written and directed by Eric Champnella, for what it is, it can be funny and a feel-good flick that I would think the whole family could enjoy.

My wife and I watched this at home on BluRay from our public library. We thought the Oak trees looked familiar, I found it was shot in the New Orleans area, probably one of the suburbs like Kenner or Metairie.

It is about a 13-yr-old girl who wants to be a top soccer player, she has goals but we aren't quite sure if she is willing to work as hard as she needs to. She is played very convincingly by Siena Agudong as Reagan Wills.

She idolized professional Alex Morgan, has lots of Morgan things on her wall, including a life-sized poster. Reagan falls and hits her head, when she wakes up the poster is blank but Morgan is standing in front of her. Thing is everyone else thinks she is crazy because only Reagan can see Morgan and speak to her.

This story has a bit of "Bad News Bears" and "The Big Green" in it. Reagan wants to be on the elite team that wins every year but she is dismissed by the coach, then finds a team of rejects that aren't very good, with a coach who doesn't know anything about soccer. But with the help of Morgan, and eventually Reagan's dad, their team of rejects turn into a contender for the title.

There are a few scenes that play to the young teen rival cliche but in all it is a very nicely made movie with a good message - it is not enough to really want to be something, you also really have to work harder than everyone else.

My dad likes sports movies so agreed to watch this with young adults. We all enjoyed it. Yes, it's intended for kids but us adults liked it too. Cute movie, would probably watch it again.

Reagan, 13 (played by Siena Adugong) a talented footballer (soccer player for readers in USA and Canada) gets no encouragement from parents or coaches, joins the usual team of rejects and misfits and helps them succeed. That's all there is. No attempt is ever made to vary this entirely standard plot and it's obvious what will happen at every stage. It's a carelessly made, patchy film but I did quite enjoy it. I'll run though what's good and the worst of what's bad.

Gaining it an extra rating point, the reason I watched this in the first place and most of the reason I kept on watching: this is a rare look at a girls' team, by contrast to the zillion sports underdog films about boys' or men's teams (Bad News Bears, Mighty Ducks, etc, etc.) which may or may not have a token girl. Adugong, onscreen almost every minute, does a decent acting job, and her character, as well as determined, is sweet-natured and generally adorable, helping me engage with the feel-good factor. Others may find her cloying in a Disney-TV type way. The good idea, which should set this apart from similar films, is the inclusion of a real sports star. Sadly Alex Morgan never develops much of a personality, isn't allowed to show off her skills, and mostly just stands there spouting stock advice like 'train hard' and 'use both feet'. Some of the humour based around the rubbish team and its 'English' coach is pretty funny.

On the negative side, apart from the wholly unoriginal plot, the acting is patchy and the script uninspiring. The depictions of actual play are particularly poor. Adugong herself looks a decent player, but the other girls, even the non-speaking extras, don't seem to have been chosen for footballing ability. This is fine for the rejects, but they're meant to be playing against the best teams in the state and these are no better. An example of the crude attempts to demonstrate improvement. The goalie is never shown making a save, and simply stands, watching the ball go past her, until the moment comes when she faces a penalty. On this occasion she lies down (rather than making any kind of athletic dive) and someone off-screen rolls the ball gently into her hands. Just pathetic. Maybe these film-makers know nothing about football and didn't take advantage of having Morgan on the payroll to find out. Or maybe they just don't care.

What annoyed me more than anything. In the USA, most boys, like Reagan's brother, play strictly local sports (and get very excited about them) possibly because they've never been able to cut it at the world's favourite. By contrast the US women's team is the best in the world, winners at the last World Cup and Olympics. Thus football is considered mainly a girls' game and that world-beating US national team has long had a female coach. This film seems to think girls' teams are always coached by men. When Reagan has to produce a parent to take over as coach, she chooses Dad, who has no knowledge of the game and never displays the least athletic ability. How come Mum, who couldn't have been any more useless, wasn't even considered?

I'm always reluctant to watch american movies about football, because I feel that they lack the real knowledge about the sport to appropriately put it into the big screen. But for Alex & Me, they got Alex Morgan, and she knows a lot about the sport and its mechanics. She is not only a great player, but she's also a smart player, which is something you always want to have in a team. Her presence in this film gave me a bit of hope regarding the treatment of the sport in the film, although not real expectations.

It turned out to be a moving film, filled with hope and dreams, not over-the-top dreams, but achievable ones according to the context of the film. A young girl trying to do what she loves, which is to play football, to do it well and to be victorious.

Overall, it's a nice, entertaining sports family film; Siena Agudong does a great job as the protagonist, Reagan. Plus, you got international soccer superstar, Alex Morgan. You'll have a good time.