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Trust Weighted
OK
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17Trust Points
BrianSez's Review
Summary - OK 2.5
Uplifting story of Matt Hamill, the first deaf wrestler to win the national collegiate championship. This film more or less follows the formula of any sports story: underdog faces personal challenges, he is motivated by his coach (in this case his grandpa), works hard at success, achieves great things, and gets the girl. The twist here, of course, is the deafness. This movie goes to some length to give you that feeling. Making the soundtrack silent and giving you subtitles, rumbling muffled sounds to mimic what he hears, and so on. This can be distracting at times, but not overly so. Last, but not least, one of the coolest things about this movie is that much of it is set at my alma mater: RIT. Imagine that, RIT in a movie.
Acting - OK 2.5
Russell Harvard is actually quite decent as the deaf guy. A goofy demeanor with all the typical anger management issues that wrestlers seem to have.
Raymond Barry was great at no-nonsense grandpa
Shoshanna Stern was pretty and dynamic as Matt’s girlfriend
Michael Spady did really well as the deaf roommate – but I feel like he really needs to be in a speaking role.