A Winning Team

6.3 stars.

First of all Polaha's hair is styled to look Asian maybe as a tribute to that culture, but it's unflattering. In fact it looks unkempt and sloppy. His character Ian is an odd mixture of carefree philanthropist and town do-gooder. Why is this man the coach of the soccer team, and where does he get all his money? His character and personality don't match his profession as a consultant and random benefactor of a small town in the middle of nowhere. Eventually the pieces start fitting into place, but the first confused hour was almost enough for me to delete 'Winning Team' and move on.

Emily (Hatta) comes to town because she was suspended from playing professional soccer for what appears to be the Chicago Red Stars, and as a side note it could be argued this movie is loosely based on the many troublemakers of professional soccer. She is visiting her in-laws while waiting to find out when she can return to the pros, and within a short time she literally runs into Ian and injures him in a friendly soccer game.

The story is not believable, several scenes are fragmented and incoherent and every time there is supposed to be a romantic spark between Polaha and Hatta, it's forced and awkward. The body language is wrong and the conversations are off, uncomfortable and clumsy. In addition there are several fragmented and random short segments that don't fit well into the story. It's obviously a rushed production. I have difficulty empathizing with either character, because the passion is not authentic. When Ian is seemingly devastated, it's premature because they haven't convincingly fallen in love or kissed and the relationship has no depth. After watching the entire film, I conclude that her lack of acting skills is what makes this a flop.

Back to the bumbles: supposedly Ian sprains his ankle, but he's up and about within a couple days, chopping wood, even participating in a three-legged race.

Two massive drawbacks of this movie are the immature dialogue and Hatta's inexperience. 'The Winning Team' does not showcase a winning team of cast members, is juvenile and pointless, and consists of nothing more than shoddy construction. Case in point, Emily's family: is that her brother in-law or her actual brother? The girl is her niece, we know that much, but we aren't sure how. His wife died some years ago, but Emily reminisces about her as if she was her sister. Apparently she was a professional soccer player and her best friend. We find out how she died too, but I had already checked out.

This whole film hinges on Ian's love for Emily and her inability to reciprocate, but it comes across more like he's a man in his forties trying to date a clueless 18 year old. Speaking of age, why does her brother look like he's twice her age? Weird movie.

I am a huge Hallmark fan and especially a Kristoffer fan, and as much as I liked the premise of the movie, I had trouble watching because Kristoffer is almost old enough to be Hatta's father. I also never criticize an actor's looks and as handsome as he is, the hair-do they gave him, was horrendous. I believe they thought it made him look younger, but for me, it just didn't work. It just made him look older. It's really too bad because they are both good actors but whoever did the casting for this one, missed the mark. He is much better with Jill in his Mystery 101 series, or someone closer to his age.

It has flaws, sure. But given Hallmark's trend as of late I expected to kinda hate it. But I don't. And I'm not shy about criticizing Hallmark these days so that says something.

His hair wasn't that bad despite the comments. It had good and bad moments but overall it worked for this character. The pacing, structure, and some acting were clunky at times but they've had much worse.

I actually liked the premise which shockingly they managed to balance. Neither lead had to be excessively torn down for the other to shine. They actually had two characters with strengths and weaknesses to highlight and overcome respectively. Actual character arcs for both.

I liked it, guys. And for not liking much out of Hallmark these days, I'll take it.

The most common problem with movies or TV series is a poor script and that's the main problem here. It's not an exciting script and even the actors don't find it exciting. It's boring, football/soccer can be exciting even in light shows like Ted Lasso. Nadia Hatta's mopey suspended player act just doesn't do it, miscasting. Kris Polaha is good, but he's better acting in the mystery genre. The rest of the cast is so-so, nothing spectacular.

It's hard to pull off realistic sports plays unless the cinematography and editing are good, this is low budget. Details aren't always Hallmark's forte, of course they might have just purchased this from a production company.

An over-aggressive soccer star is suspended and returns home, where she ends up assisting to coach her niece's team and conflicts with its somewhat hapless male coach. Kristoffer Polaha, usually great at portraying benevolent, a bit ironic, down-to-earth characters, appears excessively dejected and subdued in this role. Nadia Hatta is very convincing as unduly competitive, but shows no depth and fails to credibly project shades of a more complete or loving personality.

Somehow, the movie does not explain how these two characters, locked in their own antagonistic bubbles, find some chemistry and a way to love each other.

The idea of the story was nice and contained many elements of human and family values. The execution is bland and generic, which denies giving credit to the intent.

The soccer playing scenes, by the way, are very poorly done and only prove that all actresses, both young and adult, actually suck at this game. It could have been easy to hire a couple of real players to kick the ball once or twice.

Essentially the film is family-friendly, in no way offensive, and watchable. Yet, is no more than a feeble effort that falls quite short of its potential and the target.