One Square Mile

I attended the world premier of 4 Minute Mile, directed by Charles-Olivier Michaud, at the Seattle International Film Festival. I chose to see the film, not only because it was filmed in Seattle, but also because the storyline sounded compelling. The film proved to be more than compelling; it was shocking, gritty, and suspenseful.

A 4 minute mile is difficult for a runner to achieve. Anything is difficult when you lost your father as a child, live in poverty, and have a brother who uses you for illegal drug runs. It's understandable why high school runner Drew Jacobs (Kelly Blatz) has a chip on his shoulder, but he must overcome his anger if he wants to run the mile in under four minutes and receive a scholarship, and more importantly, escape the fate that has befallen his brother.

After being kicked off the track team for having a poor attitude, Drew seems to be spiraling downward, until his neighbor (Richard Jenkins), a former track coach who is struggling with his own demons, mentors him. The two form a special bond and fill a void in each other's heart.

Excellent performances are given by Jenkins, Kim Basinger and Cam Gigandet, but the real surprise is newcomer Kelly Blatz. Virtually unknown, unlike the other actors who were up for the part, Blatz wowed Michaud and the casting director, who decided to take a chance on him, after receiving a very raw, emotional post-screen-test email from Blatz, which brought them to tears.

Although the running sequences didn't make sense geographically to anyone familiar with the Seattle area, it was fun to see familiar sights such as Safeco Field, Garfield High School, and Fisherman's Terminal.

According to the director, the film is a metaphor for how you should live your life: Commit yourself.

4 Minute Mile is available July 1 on iTunes and On Demand, and is in theaters August 1.

This review was originally published on Yahoo! Voices: http://voices.yahoo.com/movie- review-4-minute-mile-2014-12693420.html?cat=40

Yes there were the standard clichés of high school underdog athlete from the wrong side of town. But there were enough fine qualities to this film to overcome stereotypes of the genre.

The outcome was realistic and that's refreshing. I've never seen the lead before, so I was able to believe him as the character without thinking of him as an actor from some other film.

No one was over-the-top. That's a big plus too. The gangster was pretty ordinary, the brother sleepy for the most part, the girl quiet and real, and the mom subtle and resigned. I've seen Richard Jenkins do these parts before, so I would have preferred someone else, but nevertheless, he did a decent job.

I totally get the message on a personal level. I have never been able to break through to that level of personal commitment required for greatness in anything. This kid had to.

Nice cinematography, adequate use of emotional music without being obnoxious. But this is a dark, slow film and it requires a special degree of commitment to stick with it. Not unlike that required of a long distance runner.

As a sports film (of which there are many each year, mostly in the B-genre, most you will never hear about) this little gem has more in common with Eastwood's Gran Torino. In other words -- oh this sounds so cliché, but sometimes only a cliché will suffice -- this really isn't a film about winning, or a film about running, but a film about life. Life. The one sport we all have in common. The one sport we compete in each day, whether we want to or not. The 4-minute mile becomes a metaphor for merely living your life with integrity, with impeccability. With its sights set so high, this would be such an easy film to mess up. The balance is so delicate. Heavy-handed direction would make the viewer feel manipulated, or "Disneyed." And too light a touch would miss the mark completely. Canadian director Charles-Olivier Michaud, with very few credits in features, simply nails it. I mean nails it. Pitch perfect direction. About as far from Michael Bay and the Transformers as the Earth is from the Moon. And the cast is uniformly excellent, especially veteran warhorse Richard Jenkins -- who steals his scenes so subtly you don't realize it until the film is over -- and Analeigh Tipton, who has to simultaneously be provocative enough to attract a boy who wasn't looking for a relationship in the first place, yet practical enough to cement that relationship as the seismic tremors in the script come one after another. A gem. A perfect gem.

4 Minute Mile is a plodding unoriginal drama although it does make a reference to The Karate Kid at one point.

Drew (Kelly Blatz) is the headstrong teenager who is a good sprinter. His father died when he was a kid, his older brother is mixing with drug dealers and gets Drew to do some literal running for him and his glamorous mother (Kim Basinger) seems not to care that her sons could be descending down the crime ladder.

Drew comes to attention of an alcoholic, loner coach Coleman (Richard Jenkins) who suggests he moves up to running the mile and gets Drew involved in a tough training regime which also involves sanding a boat, pushing a tyre underwater and sometimes coming out with sage like advice which Drew listens to or ignores depending on his mood.

Their is a potential love interest for Drew but a heavy cloud hangs over his brother and his fractious relationship with the drug dealers which you will guess will play a pivotal role in the final act.

This really is a trite film lacking any resonance, it looks cheap and features a bland performance by Blatz, an excellent performance by Jenkins and a minor appearance by Basinger.

It doesn't necessarily speak to the overall quality of a picture that we can recognize the entirety of its thrust within the first few minutes; there's no rule that says different filmmakers can't try their own hand at familiar stories. What that does mean, though, is that as viewers we will be more prone to seeing weaknesses in material we effectively already know, and especial strengths will be all the more important to help a title stand on its own feet. As the minutes tick by in this '4 minute mile' we discern characters, dialogue, story ideas, and scene writing that we've seen before (I'm so close to being able to specifically name a few movies, they're right on the tip of my tongue); we also see the familiar faces of Richard Jenkins and Kim Basinger. We get some dialogue that is intended to be inspirational, or helpful training tips, and mildly achieves that goal; some comes across merely as empty bloviating. Still other instances of dialogue are instead just laughably bad; it turns out my thirteen-year old niece was right on the money, at least in part, and nowhere is the dialogue worse and more unintentionally funny than when characters wax poetic about how beautiful running is.

There came a point when I glanced at the digital timer and noticed that the flick was about two-thirds over, and unfortunately, as I was still waiting for an especial strength to manifest, I realized at that point this just wasn't going to happen. We get notes of tragedy, light humor, heavy drama, violence, triumph, romance, yada yada yada. There's nothing emphatically wrong with any of it; there's nothing really good about any of it, either. Protagonist Drew is upheld as being a very promising runner, but at no time in the script do we see enough of that potential for his obstacles to mean anything to us; he comes across as a nobody who could have maybe been a somebody but instead continues to be a nobody. Basinger is an unconvincing set piece; Jenkins flounders and can't sell the part of a retired coach that life has beaten down who nevertheless tries to inspire Drew. Wes is just a rancid jerk, Drew tries extra hard to be a jerk, and despite being only a pretty face Lisa might have the most personality of any character here. Despite the slight variation in mood mostly the tone here is so thoroughly sullen that it's like we're watching a sports drama interpretation of the Grim Dark ethos that has largely defined DC Comics' cinematic output.

I blame director Charles-Olivier Michaud for the dreary tone and unimpressive acting; I blame writers Jeff Van Wie and Josh Campbell for that poor dialogue, and for a story that feels blocky, blunt, and straightforward. There is no arc in any capacity, nor any progression from A to B; characters' attitudes flip, and ideas, characters, and beats are introduced, with the suddenness of a rabbit doing a binky. Even through to the end it quite seems that ideas are just being splattered willy-nilly across a canvas instead of applied in delicate, thoughtful strokes, let alone meaningfully blended together. The climax is the one point where it seems that '4 minute mile' comes nearest to firing on cylinders, including the acting - it took nearly ninety full minutes, but hats off to Basinger, Kelly Blatz, and Lio Tipton - and some post-rock chords in Stephen Barton's score. By that point, though, it's hard to care, and the scene as it presents just feels a tad overdone. All told I don't think this flick is wholly rotten, but it simply isn't very good in any regard. For those distinct faults and shortcomings that come across, on the other hand, as far as I'm concerned this slips to below average. I'm glad for those who get more out of this than I do, and I see the value it could have had. I also firmly believe that whatever it is you want out of '4 minute mile,' you'll find it elsewhere in higher quantities and with better quality.