In the standard underdog tale, do you ever root for the other team? Far as I can tell, on the other side of Iowa City there’s another perfectly reasonable high school, City High. Their students play some damn good volleyball, too, and (as I understand it) came up one win short of the women’s state volleyball title in consecutive years. Is their fight, their determination, their cause any less worthy only because they managed to avoid a fatality during the season? While I’m going to talk about the trials of West High in 2011, I’m dedicating this review to the warriors of City High School.
As the fall semester began, West High was defending state champion in women’s volleyball. I take it that when you’re state champion, things happen that don’t otherwise … ever. Like posters being made to advertise a pre-season game … like volleyball attendance not restricted to parents and friends … like radio play-by-play of high school volleyball. That last one was new to me; I have never heard a radio play-by-play broadcast of volleyball. Ever. Huh. Well maybe we don’t have volleyball in California.
Best friends Caroline “Line” Found (Danika Yarosh) and Kelly who-hasn’t-earned-a-last-name (Erin Moriarty) are the soul of the West team. Well, that’s an exaggeration. Line is the soul and star player. Kelly is her best friend and a lesser talent … sort of a supplementary soul. Maybe a second-team soul. This premise gets tested when Caroline exits a standard Iowa drunken barn dance on a motorbike without her helmet. With the Line symbolically erased, the West team falls apart, sacrificing the entire first half of their schedule to forfeits. Can they pull themselves together in time to whip up The Miracle Season? I suppose it wouldn’t be a movie if they couldn’t.
My Iowa City friend tells me that the place holds three high schools, but Catholic Regina High isn’t mentioned in the film. Perhaps it’s unnecessary as the West rebirth was peppered with Christian message as is. There’s a moment before the championship game in which Coach Kathy Bresnahan (Helen Hunt) actually urges the crowd to take moment to look around and meet a stranger in the (can we call it a) congregation (?) Yeah, this is straight out of Catholic mass. I’m sure “Liner” would have wanted you to add “Peace be with you.” Thank you, movie; I don’t get enough Christianity at home, on-line, or in the news.
Religious undertones aside, there’s power in making a standard sportball film that’s all female. This isn’t Suck It Up or Bring Them Back or something “girly,” like cheerleading. This is respectable “mansport.” There is no judging here; there is simply the vanquishing of opponents. It’s great that we are at the point in social community development where an all-woman sportball film doesn’t have to apologize for itself like, say, A League of Their Own; it can just be. And you can appreciate it not because the players are women, but because the objectives are the same as any stupid mansportball film.
The fact that The Miracle Season is a true story for me makes the clichés all the more painful. Oh, look, it’s the same killer drill as in the movie Miracle. And it’s the same “dig deep” inspirational moment, and the same, “It’s what she would have wanted” rallying cry as in half a dozen other films. Yeah, lines like this would mean a lot more were it not for that little part where were she alive, no adult in several counties would give a shit what she wants and what doesn’t. The same crowd that criticizes kids for protesting gun violence is suddenly concerned that we’re going to honor the wishes of what should have been a high school senior? Did I get that wrong? Is it not the same –or-similar- crowd? I think it is.
I don’t wish to knock the film entirely. This is a good story, one of respect and redemption and, dare I say … salvation. It’s easy to root for any group who 
can channel grief into a greater and positive goal, even if I cannot tell them apart. Sorry, no, not at all. Yes, you’ve got a very pretty volleyball team; I couldn’t name a single member to save my life. That aside, those who care enough to tell the players apart might find this movie worth watching again and again and again.
In between clever direction asking Helen Hunt to point a yell “YES!” at least a half-dozen times, Hunt makes the “Gipper” speech least likely to be played on arena jumbotrons during 4th quarter time-outs in professional stadiums. However, the speech does end in a great big team hug and then a spontaneous orgy of snow angels. Do ask yourself: “What’s important here?” When your team has just lost the Superbowl and a random inner-city is being ignited, trashed, and looted in that order, isn’t it worth the price of admission to know the players had a good time?
West High defend their title with grace
Even though there is a tragic new space
Please God, hear me, Man
If it be Your plan
Can you let me end this with an ace?
Rated PG, 99 Minutes
Director: Sean McNamara
Writer: David Aaron Cohen, Elissa Matsueda
Genre: The women of Sportball!
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: West High students and alumni
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: City High
