‘Big Miracle’ is a whale of a story

We’re old enough that we should remember the true story upon which Big Miracle is based. In the mid-’80s, three whales became trapped under ice in Alaska and, after a local reporter did a brief report on their plight, it quickly became national and then international news.

John Krasinski plays Adam Carlson, the Fairbanks-based reporter who, while on location in the sleepy small town of Point Barrow, happens upon the whales. His story gets picked up for national broadcast and catches the attention of Adam’s ex-girlfriend Rachel Kramer (Drew Barrymore), a Greenpeace activist who rushes out to protect the whales after she hears the local Inuit are considering killing the creatures and using them for food.

Eventually, oil tycoon J.W. McGraw (Ted Danson) is convinced (with the help of his wife) that it would be good PR if he let the rescuers use his ice-breaker to try to free the whales. When that fails, Inuit and activists band together to manually cut holes through the ice so that the whales can swim to open water. Eventually, even the Russians get involved as they send an icebreaking barge over to try to bust through a wall of ice too big for humans to break open.

Even if you know the outcome, there’s still a certain amount of suspense to this family-friendly story. And, the acting is good across the board (Tim Blake Nelson, one of our favs, has a small role as a local scientist). While this feel-good film isn’t going to be a big draw at the box office,  it’s got a good message that shouldn’t go unheard. Plus, as Krasinski says in the film, everyone loves whales.