Review of Score: A Hockey Musical (2010) by Jason N — 21 Dec 2010

What happens when a young hot-shot 17 year old who's never played an organized game of hockey a day in his life, suddenly gets drafted to one of the top teams in Toronto? Fame and fortune my friend, fame and fortune. At first he clashes with all of the players on the team due to his general stature and somewhat baby-faced look. But you should never judge a person by the size of his stick or sharpness of his skates. At first frowned upon, he quickly impresses, almost unbelievably with the sheer well of mass talent that he has residing in his possession. He becomes an overnight sensation, racking up as many goals as many hockey players dream of racking up in their lifetime. He's of course touted as "the next Crosby". That is until he's asked to take part in the ugly side of the sport that he fears rears its ugly head far too often, the ugly mug of on-ice fighting. Can he keep his oh so beloved and coveted spot as the star of the team by fighting or will his fighting against fighting make him lose his dream?

Score: A Hockey Musical has a very Canadian feel to it for many reasons, chiefly being its cast: Noah Reid, Allie MacDonald, Olivia Newton-John (I know she's English born and Australian raised but whatever), John Pyper-Ferguson, Stephen McHattie and Marc Trottier. There are also some great cameos from Walter Gretzky, Theo Fleury, George Stroumboulopoulos and Nelly Furtado. All of the actors are very good in their roles and the big Canadian ingredient to it makes it that much better. All of the actors fit the bill and in this aspect the film works quite well.

As is to be expected it's a "Canadian Hockey Musical" so there's lots of Canadian stuff in it, lots of hockey stuff in it and a lot of musical stuff in it. If none of these are appealing to you then don't watch it. If any of the three things do sound appealing to you then totally go see the film. The musical aspect of it was quite impressive. Now keep in mind that this is a Canadian film and not something produced inside of the US. As sad as it is, not much is to be expected from a Canadian movie (other than something by Sarah Polley because she's brilliant. Away From Her, need I say more?) Sure the musical numbers weren't up to Rent, Grease or Across The Universe level standards but it was still fairly decent. Again think of it in terms of being Canadian and that sets the bar a tad bit lower.

While the writing of the musical aspect is fairly good, the film does run into a bit of trouble in the story department. Yes the idea of the film is a clever one (and if I haven't gotten the point across enough it's homegrown in Hollywood North) but the execution is a tad bit shaky. The film follows the all-too common six point story graph: 1) Exposition, 2) Initial Incident, 3) Rising Action, 4) Climax, 5) Falling Action (Or Denouement) and 6) Conclusion. The film plays out as you'd expect. A young up-and-coming small town boy who has dreams of making it big in the higher up hockey leagues is scouted by a team's owner to make it in that very "big time". Despite objections from his parents he decides to join thanks to the help of his BFF who's also a girl who is also in love with him. He starts in a clash with the team, but they then realize that he could be the next Sidney Crosby and then they worship him. He is then king of the world (and no I'm not thanking you James Cameron for stealing your line...), but fame and fortune quickly gets to his head. As he changes to being a total hotshot in hockey things are pretty good, until he quits the team because he refuses to fight. He then becomes a total asshole to his BFF, they have a falling out and go "friends off" for a while. Then after another musical number he realizes all along what he's been missing. He joins back onto the team, realizes his true feelings for his BFF and everything is happy-slappy and lovey-dovey. And another thing, for being a "hockey musical" I felt that there didn't seem to be nearly enough hockey in it. Now don't get me wrong, I liked the film. I did enjoy it but the lack of surprises and sheer predictability of the plot tainted my enjoyment somewhat.

Overall Score: A Hockey Musical is a mostly enjoyable Canadian fun-filled delightful romp. It's unapologetically Canadian and it knows it. The actors in the cast and the musical numbers were all quite good but the generally clichà (C)d story with glaringly obvious structure and the lack of actual hockey scenes lowers the film to something less than it very easily could have been.