One Square Mile

This film tells the story of a young man who takes up running as a way to get a college scholarship, so he can leave the undesirable social situation he is in.

The story of him forming a bond with a older coach, striving to win could have been touching, but "4 Minute Mile" doesn't achieve the emotional intensity that I hoped for. Mostly it's too do with the ineffective delivery of the plot. I watched the first ten minutes three times but I was still not entirely sure who was who. In addition, how the young man and the coach bond is unconvincing and poorly explained. And I think Cam Gigandet is under utilized in the film. Fortunately Richard Jenkins is there to save the day, but it still doesn't save this film from being rather flat and uninteresting.

It isn't made clear in the version that I saw that this is a true story....the runner comes from a family with a "low life brother" who has even "lower life friends" and a mother who seems very distant. His coach spends most of the film "in a bottle" and the drama of the "tragedy" only comes with 9 minutes of the film remaining. I don't see much in this to entertain given that's its unclear if the "hero" of the film actually really achieves anything in life. If you have other things to do, it may be better than watching this, although to be fair to Ms Basinger she still looks great heading into 60years of age

This really is not good. At first I thought it was going to be about Pre. Nope. Then it mad me nostalgic for a foreign film (maybe Spanish) I saw 5 or so years ago, called 100 meters. 100 Meters is a MUCH better film. Set your viewing priorities accordingly.

This is a hugely unoriginal story about poor kid with terrible family life who needs to win a scholarship to get away from it, and the once-great record-holder, now bitter, broken old man who sees redemption if he can get this kid across the finish line. Hugely unoriginal. And maybe being in dreary Seattle depressed them all. The acting overall is stoic.

Drew Jacobs lives really a hard life, he lost his father, he lives in poverty and besides has to make illegal runs for his brother Wes.He has been expulsed from the university relay team.Other side Coleman is observing all the competitions and has noticed that Drew has a talent for running a one-mile distance.At the beginning Drew suffers very much, because Coleman gives him hard duties, running in the water, looking for a tire under the water.But Coleman wants to show him what means patience and tenacity.Besides this hard training Drew met Lisa, a student who practices also athletics and they become first friends (he got a black eye for definding her in her birthday cerebration) and fall in love together. A good story about patience, tenacity and self improvement. About performances, Richard Jenkins no needs any presentation, he is really a very good actor,Kelly Blatz is excellent in his role of Drew and Analeigh Tipton is also excellent in her role of Lisa.

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.