‘Blue Miracle’ Review: A Real-Life Underdog Triumph Becomes a Wholesomely Hokey Family Film
Guy Lodge Film CriticMany a chef will tell you that fish and cheese don’t go together, but “Blue Miracle” says otherwise. Based on the true, headline-making story of an amateur Mexican team who won the world’s richest fishing tournament in 2014, Julio Quintana’s likable family film misses nary a cornball trick in Hollywood’s underdog-drama playbook, and just about pulls it off.Viewers can see precisely where Quintana and co-writer Chris Dowling have embellished the saga of Cabo orphanage proprietor Omar Venegas, who led a handful of his teenage wards to that unlikely victory: “Blue Miracle” is awash with 11th-hour peril and contrivance, reducing characters to stock figures to make plain sailing of its crowd-pleasing narrative.