Go Canada! We have a new reaction from Paul on the festival hit RACEWALKERS, now playing in limited release.
About: Will could never compete in the sport he’s always loved: racewalking. While struggling to find respect as a coach, Will’s fortunes change when he spots a burnout pitcher with the most impeccable racewalking stride he’s ever seen. Together, Will and Matt team up, face the challenges of a sport that doesn’t want them, and to try to take down the best walker in the country.
Reaction: This is a enjoyable but modest little sports movie about a rarely highlighted Olympic sport known as racewalking: it is halfway between running and walking, a sort of speedwalking if you will, and is probably far more athletically challenging than it sounds. The script is familiar, about a down on his luck former baseball player living in a van who is redeemed when an outsider wannabe coach spots him as a natural talent for a sport he has never heard of. That the coach in question actually suffers from dwarfism, but is only the butt of a cheap shot once, attests to the fine work of Phil Moniz, who not only does a great job anchoring the film as the unorthodox diminutive coach, but co-wrote and co-directed this sweet natured film. In a sad reflection of the tough challenges confronting modestly budgeted Canadian fare, this film lost its original distributor (Levelfilm) to insolvency, and the producers had to recover the rights in order to self-distribute it themselves. It has won awards at both the Slamdance and the Blue Mountain Film Festivals. You might want to racewalk, but not run, to catch this small but thoroughly tender-hearted little movie.
Rating: 5 out of 10
