NY Times October 1, 1999: 'Mystery,
Alaska': A Small Hockey Town Takes on the Big Guys By STEPHEN
HOLDEN
When it comes to capturing the bone-crunching, high-velocity world
of sports, Hollywood has a surprisingly spotty record, often preferring
to present the game as metaphor ("Field of Dreams") instead
of diving into the bruising reality of the arena. But "Mystery,
Alaska," an upbeat meat-and-potatoes movie that is a striking
change in directorial style for Jay Roach, who oversaw the garish
Austin Powers romps, conveys some of the thrill and ferocity of ice
hockey while skillfully folding together multiple personal dramas.
Produced by David E. Kelley, the king of television drama ("L.A.
Law," "The Practice," "Ally McBeal"), who
wrote the screenplay with Sean O'Byrne, the movie is clearly a project
dear to Kelley's heart. Twenty years ago, he was captain of Princeton's
hockey team, and the screenplay includes enough technical jargon to
demonstrate an insider's knowledge of the sport without clogging up
the narrative.
"Mystery, Alaska" uses sport to explore the hardy psyche
of a remote Alaskan town that lives and breathes hockey and whose
pride and joy is its legendary pond hockey team. The movie has the
look and feel of an unusually well-constructed television drama in
which a dozen sharply drawn characters interact in ways that are fairly
predictable without seeming too snugly formulaic. You can also feel
the chill; the climactic game takes place in minus-10-degree weather.
In an amusing satirical touch, Little Richard (of all people) opens
the event with a rendition of the national anthem that is so slow
that some of the waiting players worry that their bones will begin
to freeze.
What sparks the drama is the return to Mystery of Charles Danner
(Hank Azaria), a native son who forsook his hometown for New York
City to become a television producer. Danner has come up with a promotional
scheme to pit the locals against the New York Rangers in a nationally
televised exhibition game to be broadcast live from Mystery. The show
would be an economic boon to the town. Without actually demonizing
Danner, the movie presents him as a shifty city slicker and the high-powered
network personnel who descend on Mystery as blase media gypsies. One
dreadful pat, and inaccurate, marketing pitch proposed is to dub the
Mystery team Eskimos on Ice.
The movie's moral and emotional grounding wire is Mystery's sheriff,
John Biebe (Russell Crowe), a 13-year veteran of the team and local
sports hero who is devastated to learn that he is being retired from
the first string to make room for Stevie Weeks (Ryan Northcott), a
naive eager beaver only half his age. Biebe is a terrific role for
Crowe, whose Rock of Gibraltar machismo anchors the film in decent
common-sense values. Biebe's demotion sends a shock through the town
and through his marriage to Donna (Mary McCormack), who years ago
dated Danner but chose to marry Biebe and live a very circumscribed
life.
Other colorful locals include the town's mayor, Scott Pitcher (Colm
Meaney); Skank Marden (Ron Eldard), the team's resident stud who blithely
cuckolds Pitcher; the local judge, Walter Burns (Burt Reynolds); his
wife, Joanne (Judith Ivey); their hockey-playing son, Birdie (Scott
Grimes), and their teen-age daughter, Marla (Rachel Wilson). Finally
there is Bailey Pruitt (Maury Chaykin), the blustering hyper-emotional
lawyer who travels all the way to New York to argue the team's case
when the game is in danger of being canceled because of union problems.
What gives zest to a story that builds to a predictable David and
Goliath confrontation on a pond (in which a Coca-Cola logo has been
imprinted beneath the surface of the ice) is a screenplay that locates
the characters' idiosyncrasies and a calm directorial style that respects
their dignity even when they're under extreme stress. Where most films
about small towns caught up in sports mania take a patronizing view
of grown-ups living vicariously through their athletic children, "Mystery,
Alaska" never questions the community's values. Without fawning
over the players, the movie presents them as rugged, earthy embodiments
of a healthy pioneer spirit that enables communities like Mystery
to stay closely knit and proud.
MYSTERY, ALASKA’ SCORES
By ROBERT PHILPOT (10/1/99)
c.1999 Fort Worth Star-Telegram
Appropriately enough, no movie plays by the rules quite like a sports
movie. It’s a game in which you have to have one or more of
the following: a rag-tag group of underdogs; a grizzled vet who’s
getting too old for the game; a young hotshot to replace the vet;
an irascible coach; an inspirational speech or two; and, of course,
The Big Game.
The secret, as in real sports, is how well you play the game using
those rules. “Mystery, Alaska,” which includes all of
these ingredients, pulls off what could be called a stunning upset:
It triumphs over its own cliches, formula and manipulation to become
thoroughly entertaining.
There’s no mystery about the town of Mystery; it’s hockey-mad.
Every Saturday, Mystery’s team takes on other area teams in
four-man pond-hockey matchups. The Mystery men are so good that Sports
Illustrated does a feature on them, which leads a former resident
(Hank Azaria) to arrange a publicity stunt: a game against the New
York Rangers. Mystery’s residents have a great deal of small-town
pride and insularity, but despite fears that the game will turn the
town into a joke, they accept the Rangers game. The Rangers are a
little more reluctant.
The best thing you can say about “Mystery’s” screenplay,
which was co-written by TV whiz David E. Kelley, is that it doesn’t
feel like a Kelley script. Nothing against Kelley; his writing for
“The Practice” is arguably the finest on television, and
although his “Ally McBeal” is mind-bogglingly erratic,
you can count on it to make at least one or two cogent observations
per show. And unlike Kelley’s summer entry, the forced horror
comedy “Lake Placid, Mystery” doesn’t condescend
to its genre — in fact, it celebrates its David-vs.-Goliath
conventions as few sports movies have since the original “Rocky.”
Director Jay Roach takes an unobtrusive approach, placing his trust
in his actors and his writers, and stepping up when he’s most
needed. “Mystery’s” affable cast includes Russell
Crowe as the aging player, who’s also threatened when his wife’s
former boyfriend (Azaria) returns to town. Mary McCormack, as Crowe’s
wife, gives a glowing performance, and is blessed with what may be
the best female character the supposedly female-friendly Kelley has
ever written.
Burt Reynolds is stolid as the town’s dignified judge; Colm
Meaney, who has a silent moment that’s some of the best acting
you’ll see all year, is the mayor and team owner; Lolita Davidovich
is touching as his younger, neglected wife; Maury Chaykin is amusing
as that Kelley specialty, an eccentric lawyer; and Ron Eldard is goofily
charming as the team’s ladies’ man.
It’s hard to say just why “Mystery” works so well
with ingredients that can, and have, flopped when used elsewhere.
Maybe it’s just a matter of fielding the right team and playing
the game well. No doubt some people will be able to resist its charms,
but that’s their loss. Even when “Mystery” trips
up with occasional underwritten moments, it’s still a movie
to root for.
'Mystery,
Alaska' Is Puckish Fun - Kelley's hockey thriller looks at small-town
life
Peter Stack, Chronicle Staff Critic (October 1, 1999)
©1999 San Francisco Chronicle
"Mystery, Alaska'' is a raucous come-from-nowhere sports movie
that scores big as a study of small-town life where characters collide
and are forced to get along for the good of the community.
It's an action-packed hockey thriller edited with dizzying rat- a-tats
of quick cuts that put the violent arena atmosphere in the viewer's
face. The inferiority complex of a small town and heaps of community
bonding interplay wonderfully in this film, co-written and produced
by David E. Kelley of television's "The Practice'' and "Ally
McBeal,'' and directed by Jay Roach of "Austin Powers: The Spy
Who Shagged Me.'' It was filmed in Alberta, Canada.
Energy and quirky comedy, some of it sexual and a lot of it rough
and tumble, keep the story clicking, though some viewers may blush.
Mystery, Alaska, is a town of 633 people. Besides fighting summer
mosquitoes and winter cold, the community rallies around one thing
-- the thrill of ice hockey. To this end, the town has mustered an
amazing team of hotshot locals whose prowess on the town pond holds
everyone in thrall.
When a smooth promoter and former resident proposes an exhibition
game between Mystery's ragtag squad and the imperious professional
New York Rangers, the town almost comes unglued. It's as if civilization
suddenly pounced on the middle of nowhere and gave it the stamp of
approval. But is the loss of innocence via national media attention
a natural byproduct?
Actually, nobody seems very innocent in Mystery. Russell Crowe, as
the husky local sheriff and veteran of the pond team, has heard and
seen it all. But he almost loses it when the town's hockey committee,
led by the mayor (Colm Meaney), asks him to step aside and be the
coach, so that a younger player can compete in the big game.
To make matters worse, the sheriff's wife, Donna (Mary McCormack),
is getting the big flirt from the promoter (Hank Azaria), her Mystery
High School boyfriend before he departed to become a big- time Manhattan-based
sportswriter.
The town is loaded with memorable characters, each with a history
-- a stuffy judge (Burt Reynolds); the mayor's wildly unfaithful wife
(Lolita Davidovich), who is having an affair with one of the hockey
team's hottest players (Ron Eldard); an overweight lawyer (Maury Chaykin)
who helps coach; the judge's thoughtful wife (Judith Ivey); and a
gang of rollicking players (Scott Grimes, Adam Beach, Ryan Northcott,
Kevin Durand and Brent Stait). ©1999 San Francisco Chronicle
NO 'MYSTERY' WHY 'ALASKA' CHARMS - IT'S AN ICE LITTLE MOVIE
By LOU LUMENICK (10/1/99) © NY POST
'MYSTERY, Alaska," which tries to cross "Slap Shot"
with "Northern Exposure," doesn't quite achieve its goal,
but this overgrown little movie does offer solid laughs, engaging
performances and a captivating setting. That would be the remote little
village of the title, where the residents have two main interests.
"I play hockey and fornicate," explains one character,
"because they're the two most fun things to do in cold weather."
When they aren't hopping into one others' beds, the good folk of Mystery
are obsessing about their Saturday hockey game on an ice pond, a decades-long
tradition. But the purity of that experience is challenged when a
former-resident-turned-sportswriter (a wonderfully smarmy Hank Azaria)
returns with a stunning offer. He wants the Mystery men, whose skills
he's hyped in a magazine article, to play the New York Rangers in
Alaska as a televised stunt. The town judge and resident hockey expert
(Burt Reynolds in foxy-grandpa mode) warns the pond players they haven't
a prayer against professionals and he refuses, at least at first,
to coach the team.
But civic pride wins out, and the mayor (Colm Meaney) pressures the
sheriff (Russell Crowe) to take on the job - though he just cut the
34-year-old sheriff from the squad after 13 seasons to make room for
a high-school phenom (Ryan Northcott). To make things worse, the sportswriter
is flirting with his ex-sweetheart, the sheriff's wife (Mary McCormack).
Crowe also has to arrest the team's star player, a grocery clerk (Michael
Buie), for shooting a representative of a Wal-Mart-style chain (Michael
McKean) in the foot. And the mayor's wife (Lolita Davidovich) is fooling
around with yet another player (Ron Eldard).
You practically need a scorecard to keep track of the players in
this amiable ensemble piece, which springs from the fevered brains
of TV uber-producer David E. Kelley ("The Practice," "Ally
McBeal" and this summer's unfortunate big-screen misfire "Lake
Placid") and Sean O'Byrne, a writer on Kelley's fondly remembered
"Picket Fences." Indeed, "Mystery, Alaska" throws
in so many quirky subplots, it often feels like a very long (127 minutes)
TV episode, with lots of obscenity and sexual activity added. But
it has a terrific cast (including Judith Ivey as Reynolds' wife, and
priceless cameos by Mike Myers as a sportscaster and Little Richard
as himself). Crowe ("L.A. Confidential") is wonderful as
the hang-dog lawman who watches helplessly as the town slides into
giddy self-delusion. Maury Chaykin is funny and touching as the town
lawyer, who goes to New York to plead Mystery's case in court when
the Ranger players balk at the Alaska junket.
Director Jay Roach (who helmed the two Austin Powers movies) gets
maximum laughs of out the material, though his staging of the climactic
game is sometimes a mite confusing. (No, the Rangers don't play themselves,
and it's far from "Hoosiers" on skates).
"Mystery, Alaska" is not a great movie, but it's consistently
entertaining and almost worth seeing just for the beautifully photographed
setting, a town the filmmakers created from scratch at the base of
a mountain in Alberta, Canada.
Three reviews from the Urban Cinefile archives:
"Ice hockey isn't so much a sport in Mystery, Alaska, but a
ritual celebration. The whole town is involved – from the mayor
and the sheriff to the town lawyer and the judge. And when Russell
Crowe roars 'Is anyone f***ing tired' at half time in the dressing
room, I challenge anyone watching to feel in the least bit tired.
Just as Fever Pitch and The Cup infected us with the passion that
goes with the sport, Mystery, Alaska takes us into the wintry town,
and makes us care for its people. It has all the elements of a well
written, engaging film: it's funny, quirky, poignant and moving. There's
a lovely moment when Crowe describes how the town lawyer became overweight.
'Every time he met a nice person in Mystery, his heart grew; he met
so many nice people, his body had to expand.' I know exactly what
he meant. There are so many genuinely nice characters in this film
– forthright characters, whose no-nonsense approach, give us
faith in mankind – that we feel enriched. And not in a schmaltzy
way. Crowe gives a terrific performance; he heads a great cast and
there are wonderful performances from Burt Reynolds, Hank Azaria plus
a couple of special cameos that will make you chuckle. The winter
white settings are gorgeous, while Carter Burwell's rousing score
takes us emotionally to the white peaks' heights. We are told that
there are two fun things to do to keep warm in cold weather –
ice hockey and fornication. They're not as far apart as you might
imagine, and you'll hear more innovative propositions than you've
heard for a while. The snow may be cold, but the emotions are warm;
Mystery, Alaska is a worthwhile destination."
Louise Keller
"Like Happy, Texas, the title is the place: and the place is
smalltown America. The precision of the culture is part of its attraction,
because we see characters in their true context. Australian film makers
are forever encouraged to do this, so we shouldn't deny its value
in films from other countries - even America. The best form of storytelling
is glued to its social and cultural origins - like Rashomon, for instance.
Or Romper Stomper. Mystery is in Alaska, all-right, with its wintry
weather making it what it is. Ice hockey is the game, and as the locals
have bugger all else to do (except fornicate, as one of them explains
frankly), hockey is rather important. Through the game, kids learn
all sorts of things, as through any game, and so do adults. But where
this film wins its audience is not in any of this sort of preachin'
but in its attention to character detail and attention to a good story.
While it pays its dues to the genre of sporting underdogs battling
giants of the game and coming up with a score that's going to ensure
dignity if nothing else, Mystery, Alaska does so without being a slave
to that genre. It grows a horn here, a blister there, and takes a
turn occasionally for the dramatic, as it sketches some of the lives
that surround the central action. Performances are second in importance
only to writing in this sort of film, and Russell Crowe leads a fine
group of actors to victory in what otherwise might have been sloppy
and schmaltzy. Not that schmaltz is totally absent, but there is enough
snow and ice and hockey action to cover up what there is. Entertainingly
engaging, Mystery, Alaska has enough humour, drama, sporting action
and romantic excursions to satisfy even the most mismatched couple."
Andrew L. Urban
"Mystery, Alaska belongs to the particularly American film tradition
which proposes that what is wrong can be set right on the sporting
field. Whether it's Rocky Balboa punching his way out of the ghetto
or Jamaican bobsledders carrying the nations pride in Cool Runnings
the principle is the same and we know before entering the cinema the
film will climax with the big game/race/fight etc. This entry in the
genre has a number of elements which lift it out of the ordinary even
it follows a fairly predictable path. The screenplay by David E. Kelley
and Sean O'Byrne brisltes with a large number of neatly written characters
whose inter-relationships capture the flavour of a little town excited
and scared by the prospect of being the latest novelty item exploited
by conglomerate media which is also comes in for some well deserved
critical swipes. Director Jay Roach made his name with the Austin
Powers films and proves he's more than a laugh getter by eliciting
fine performances from a cast including a solid Russell Crowe, a wonderful
Burt Reynolds (talk about career revival!) as the straight talking
Judge, Colm Meaney as the Mayor seduced by the hype and Lolita Davidovich
as his unfaithful wife. He also knows how to shoot an ice-hockey game
and even non-sports buffs will find these sequences exciting. In the
end it winds up as you'd expect and the slightly overlong path it
travels is an engaging one." - Richard Kuipers
"I
just was so excited when I found out he was attached and I read he
script. I just couldn't wait to sort of go in and meet for it because
I just think he's phenomenal." (Mary McCormick, Mystery, Alaska
DVD Bonus Featurette)