luke-a-mcgowan

Making a film funny is like balancing an egg on your chin. It takes skill, good judgement and a knack for balance. Making a comedy without making light of its hefty themes is like balancing that egg whilst doing a tightrope walk. It takes people of rare talent to pull it off, or at the very least, to avoid plummeting to a miserable end (here's looking at you never-to-be-made Reagan movie). But with considerable skill, Paul Weitz manages to make Grandma into a quintessential dramedy, full of amusing moments, hilarious quips and a beautiful family relationship.

I wonder if I'd have bothered with this movie if I didn't have an obsession with The West Wing and therefore have heard of Lily Tomlin. I'm glad I did, because Tomlin gives the best lead actress performance of 2015 as the gruff, cantankerous and blunt widowed retiree poet Elle. She revels in her hippy lifestyle, but never becomes a caricature. Her levels of self-consciousness about her desire to prove something herself makes her more human and therefore more relatable. In the dramatic moments, Elle's rarely seen emotions break free just enough to convey the adult nature of the problem and shake our faith in the assurance that "grandma will fix everything".

Equally wonderful is Julia Garner as Elle's granddaughter Sage, whose lapse of judgement led to her pregnancy. Sage could easily have become a plot device to be towed along by Tomlin and the script, but thanks to Garner, she displays levels of vulnerability that make us long to help and console her. That isn't to say she's a weak female character - she's just a real human being.

The film plays in a series of chapters, each dealing with Elle and Sage's attempt to wheedle enough money together for an abortion. As the film progresses through a series of cameos from talented actors, the show is stolen by Sam Elliott, who gives a performance at the complete opposite end of the spectrum from his performance in 2015's I'll See You in My Dreams. There is real hurt in his eyes when he speaks about abortion and it is not only believable, but feasible, that he carried his pain through at least three subsequent wives and five children. Unfortunately, Elliott's chemistry with Tomlin isn't nearly as magical as his chemistry with Blythe Danner, but the scene still has effectiveness because of him. Also wonderful is Marcia Gay Harden as Elle's daughter/Sage's mother, a highly stressed and frenetic office worker. She works very well with Garner, and although not as well with Tomlin the great writing makes up for it.

Paul Weitz's screenplay is to be credited with the wonderful balance and surprisingly high entertainment factor. The humour is perfectly done, with the exception of a silly slapstick confrontation outside the abortion clinic. The film's editors also know that the film didn't need to exceed 80 minutes, and as such the finished product is accessible and enjoyable. A great film about women, but one that has no judgement to pass on the issue of abortion.

1. This is a perfectly harmless, feel good movie. There is not a whole lot to analyse or criticise.

2. I love the music in this film. Matthew Margeson's perfect pleasant score trundles along, almost as if one might skip to school in time with it. There are moments later on, however, which require a bit more excitement and Margeson doesn't fail to deliver the goods there either.

3. Taron Egerton does a great job as Eddie Edwards. He's a buffoon in the vein of Troy Barnes from Community, a cheerful, dorky kid skating through life on his sheer optimism and self-belief. It can be quite distracting at times whilst Egerton tries to emulate Edwards' pronounced underbite, but it does help you not to see him as the cool kid from Kingsman: The Secret Service, and throughout the film I got used to it.

4. A lot of people are taking issue with the fact that Hugh Jackman's character is entirely fictional. I'd like to point out that a film version of the true story would barely have enough content to fill a forty-five minute film. A film is meant to entertain, and the addition of Jackman's character Bronson Peary is a big shot in the arm for entertainment. Jackman is surprisingly convincing as the alcoholic former athlete, and his friendship with Edwards never feels pedestrian or forced. Director Dexter Fletcher lets us get there on our own. The way the script is written, the story never has to stop and wait for Peary, and so the film isn't unnecessarily stretched because of it.

5. The cinematography of those ski jumping shots is fantastic, especially one in which Peary flawlessly lands a jump to prove a point. The whole thing, the flick of the cigarette to the rock star landing, is just delightful to watch.

6. Two scenes really stand out as effective in the film. The first tells us more than any amount of exposition ever could: Peary tells Edwards to watch the world number two land for tips and leave him alone. The ski jumper soars through the air…and promptly stacks it, before being carried off in a stretcher. Peary then idles back over and dryly comments "and he knew what he was doing". That's it. We now understand more about the danger Edwards is in than we could ever have needed to know.

7. The second of those scenes is the scene in which everyone falls in love with him. Egerton's honest excitement and pride in his own miniscule achievement is so genuine that we as audience members want to be pleased for him as well. After seeing a whole film of people knocking Eddie down, it makes us smile whenever people want to hear about him or talk to him.

8. Issues with the film are there, but this was never going to be a five star movie so it doesn't matter a whole lot. The head of the British Olympic selection committee is so completely evil and heartless he becomes a caricature of a human being. Eddie's father is less of a caricature but still seems unnecessarily obstructive and single-minded about his son's goals and future. The film's freeze frames are so cheesy that they made me want to cringe.

9. Towards the end the screenplay gets a little too obvious and it takes you out of the film. There's only so far your disbelief can handle people dropping comments like "Oh Eddie won't compete in the 90m" or "yep, we've definitely seen the last of Eddie." I'm positive that didn't happen in real life and even in the movie, where the outcome is obvious, it isn't necessary to set up Eddie's decision to do it.

10. I would describe Eddie the Eagle as Rocky meets Forrest Gump. It may not match the former in quality, but it avoids the sticky gooey emotional manipulation of the latter whilst retaining its sweet central character. It is harmless, charming and the ideal movie to pop on for a three-generation family movie night.