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.

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.

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.

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.

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