Eddie the Eagle (Dexter Fletcher, 2016)

A loose biopic of the ski jumper Eddie Edwards, who hit the world media for embodying plucky amateurism despite coming last in both his events in the 1988 Calgary Olympics, Eddie the Eagle features every cliche in the sports drama genre (training montages are just the start of it). The man himself could probably never have gained such fame anywhere else than Britain, with its cult of the underdog, but it's a national trait that should really be regarded with pride in the face of so much jingoism around the world.
Naturally, it takes liberties with the events for comic and dramatic effect, including making the head of the British Olympic Association an out-and-out villain, the ultra-professional Scandinavian athletes he competes against a snooty bunch, at least at first, and adding Hugh Jackman as a fictional former champion turned alcoholic for purely box office reasons. And of course Jackman starts off wholly unwilling to crawl out of his bottle to coach the nutty Brit, just as Edwards's plasterer dad thinks he's living in cloud cuckoo land. But it can't help putting a smile on your face, just like the best examples of the genre, and the buddy movie angle with comic interplay between Jackman and Taron Egerton as the West Country naif, his chin defiantly jutting against the inequities of the world, is genuinely funny.

6/10