Mystery, Alaska

There’s a big enough hole in the script of Mystery, Alaska to drive a Zamboni machine through. The idea of a small community in Alaska attracting the New York Rangers to come up and play an exhibition game against the local team is as far-fetched as they come.

Still, for my money, the film almost works. It’s an inspirational piece with the heart and soul of a winner. Another sports movie, For Love of the Game, revolves around a self-centered baseball pitcher, the kind of guy who probably will end up selling his autograph to little kids at sports memorabilia shows.

The heroes in Mystery, Alaska play hockey for the real love of the game. The town has a long standing tradition called the Saturday Game, where the locals play on a pond without boards. The whole town comes out to see them play. One player is town sheriff John Biebe (Russell Crowe), who has lost a step or two.

One former resident (Hank Azaria) has written a piece about the town’s hockey tradition in Sports Illustrated. That prompts the NHL to send up the New York Rangers to play them for public relations.

The whole town pitches in to build an arena for the game. Meanwhile, the NHL players’ union tries to stop the game. To make a really long story short, the game finally takes place, way into the movie. It’s Rocky on skates, with an 11 man amateur squad taking on a professional team.

There are lots of nice performances, including one by Burt Reynolds as a municipal judge who coaches the team, and Colm Meaney as the mayor. To my amazement, no real life professional hockey players appear. Movie audiences might have enjoyed watching Wayne Gretzky taking a couple of shifts against the locals.

The downside of the film is its R rating. Filmed in frigid Alberta, there’s too much unnecessary sexual hanky panky, and the profane language could have been cleaned up. Too bad, because it never hurts to have young people see a movie about people who care about each other and their community.