Mystery, Alaska Reviews
Top Critic
This is an attractive, talented, most companionable cast.
Doesn't quite achieve its goal, but this overgrown little movie does offer solid laughs, engaging performances and a captivating setting.
| Original Score: 3/4
Mystery, Alaska is a raucous come-from-nowhere sports movie that scores big.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/4
Mystery, Alaska has affection and understanding for small-time life.
Director Jay Roach has filmed possibly the first hockey match bereft of a single semiaerial shot.
Conveys some of the thrill and ferocity of ice hockey while skillfully folding together multiple personal dramas.
Kelley is obviously aware that to make the move from TV to films he must fill his scripts with greater depth and density.
If you drop the "c" in hockey you get a perfect description of Mystery, Alaska.
| Original Score: 2/4
A hybrid of sports movies and TV sitcoms with little originality and few surprises or memorably rough edges.
The Detroit Red Wings' season begins Saturday. Why enrich Disney's coffers for a shameless piece of cinematic junk like Mystery, Alaska when you can see the real thing?
Full Review
| Original Score: 1/4
It's a sort of adult The Mighty Ducks that stretches and strains in the direction of The Last Picture Show, but falls flat on the ice.
Mystery, Alaska is sweet, pleasant, low-key, inoffensive and unnecessary.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2.5/4
You laugh often; you sniffle a bit; and you cheer loudly.
Mystery operates under the basic set-up of the jock flick but fills in the spaces with a loose sense of humor and smart human interest.
Crowe gives the kind of thoughtful performance that suggests what Mystery, Alaska could have been if it had stayed in focus.
Mystery, Alaska is fun to watch, even if you're not a hockey fan, thanks to an appealing cast and some exciting game scenes.
More hockey and less quirky drama might have saved this yawner.
Roach has to deal with some pure corn at the end, but he pulls it off and guides the actors to and through far better moments.
There is no denying Kelley's ability to write a funny one-liner or pen a poignant speech, but this frustrating film has the potential to be much more than it is, especially with the collection of able actors on hand.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/4
It contains nothing more than weather and a set of one-dimensional cut-outs.
