Big Miracle
Universal Pictures | Release Date: February 3, 2012 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
61
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 28 Critic Reviews
Positive:
17
Mixed:
10
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
75
NPRElla TaylorFeb 6, 2012
Big Miracle is a family movie fitted with the usual appeals to multiple audiences, and though tots, teens and younger parents might find the action a little slow until the rescue pressure builds, the grandparents will enjoy it as a trip down media memory lane. Read full review
75
New York PostLou LumenickFeb 3, 2012
It's an exciting, charming and often quite funny family film. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam LaceyFeb 2, 2012
It's a screwball comedy, with a possible debt to Preston Sturges's 1942 film, "The Miracle of Morgan Creek," a movie inspired by the Dionne quintuplets, and similarly set in a small town turned upside down by media and political showboating. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleFeb 2, 2012
Big Miracle is not the most sophisticated adventure film, but compared with most family movies, it's practically something out of Noel Coward. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsFeb 2, 2012
Big Miracle tells its sort-of-true version of events in a democratic and humane fashion, by way of a rangy, lively group of competing interests who actually do on occasion act like real people. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeJanice PageFeb 2, 2012
It needs only to entertain. And that it does thoroughly, leaving us both charmed and enriched without feeling very preached at. Praise be. Read full review
75
Miami HeraldRene RodriguezFeb 2, 2012
Big Miracle even throws in an unexpected bonus, a surprise last-minute cameo that is funny without being the slightest bit mean, just like the rest of this hugely likable movie. Read full review
75
St. Louis Post-DispatchJoe WilliamsFeb 2, 2012
Rounded, redemptive and refreshingly free of cynicism. Read full review
75
The A.V. ClubNathan RabinFeb 1, 2012
Kwapis fills small roles with great character actors like Stephen Root, Andrew Daly, Kathy Baker, Tim Blake Nelson, John Michael Higgins, Rob Riggle, and James LeGros, all skilled at making a lot out of a little. Read full review
70
The New York TimesRachel SaltzFeb 2, 2012
Big Miracle gets off to a shaky start, but once revved up, it becomes an involving work-against-the-clock-and-the-odds action movie. Read full review
70
TimeFeb 2, 2012
There may be no role Barrymore is better suited to than that of sanctimonious environmentalist. Read full review
70
VarietyJustin ChangFeb 1, 2012
This family-friendly outing captures the story's human snowball effect with a measure of sly, satirical wit, if also an excess of boilerplate subplots and jokey '80s details. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterMichael RechtshaffenFeb 1, 2012
It's the affable cast, headed by Drew Barrymore and John Krasinski, that really makes the picture so widely accessible. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleKimberley JonesFeb 2, 2012
Big Miracle is all formula, but with just enough savvy to temper the gentle-spiritedness and qualify it as that rare family film with an emotional manipulativeness that doesn't leave a sick slick in the mouth. Read full review
65
MovielineStephanie ZacharekFeb 2, 2012
But there's so much going on in Big Miracle that the biggest miracle of all – the whales at the center of the story, get lost amid all the criss-crossing love stories, political wheeler-dealing and well-intentioned but inadequate rescue missions. Read full review
63
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottFeb 3, 2012
What Kwapis does do, however, is nicely handle the film's whale of an emotional payoff. Read full review
63
Washington PostStephanie MerryFeb 2, 2012
As the minutes tick down, the sentimentality picks up. But chalk that up to the enigmatic creatures, which grab hold of human hearts no matter one's politics or affiliations. Whales just have a way of bringing people together. Read full review
60
Boxoffice MagazinePete HammondFeb 2, 2012
Inspiring, real and heartwarming, Big Miracle is something of a miracle itself - a family film everyone in the family can love that doesn't talk down to its audience and makes more salient political points than "Free Willy" or "Dolphin Tale." Read full review
60
New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierFeb 2, 2012
The genuinely sweet nature of this sometimes clunky movie is mixed with a little sass, and wins you over. Read full review
58
Entertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanFeb 3, 2012
Big Miracle is harmless enough, but what's annoying about it is its aura of fake activism. The movie doesn't seem to get that it's exactly when the news media began to devote more time to subjects like whales that it started to turn into news not for activists but for couch potatoes. Read full review
50
New York Magazine (Vulture)Bilge EbiriFeb 6, 2012
The film bulldozes any genuine nuance or insight or even emotion in exchange for ready-made plot points and by-the-numbers catharsis. Read full review
50
USA TodayClaudia PuigFeb 2, 2012
It's certainly a worthy saga. But given the abundance of one-dimensional human portrayals, it becomes apparent that a documentary on the subject might have been more powerful. Read full review
50
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallFeb 1, 2012
There are too many convenient romances, trumped-up crises and reversals of conscience to clear up while those poor whales suffer. Big Miracle isn't an entirely bad movie but a wholly misguided one. Read full review
42
Christian Science MonitorAndy KleinFeb 3, 2012
Stephen Root, Ted Danson, Dermot Mulroney, and other familiar faces lend their support, but it's not enough to overcome the limp, by-the-numbers execution. The film comprises innumerable expository scenes, leavened with uninspired comic relief. Read full review
40
Time OutMatt SingerFeb 7, 2012
You'd have to possess a heart colder than the Northern tundra not to care about these poor animals working their flukes off to jerk audience tears, but emotional manipulation or not, this is still a movie about people standing around a hole waiting for something to happen. Read full review
40
EmpireOlly RichardsFeb 6, 2012
This true-life tale takes some believing in the era of global warming (too much ice? Really?) but the sledgehammer emoting should let you know you're in a family drama. Read full review
40
Village VoiceMelissa AndersonJan 31, 2012
While rooting for the marine mammals (and wishing for more footage of them - and even of their animatronic incarnations), your heart will also go out to the cast, stuck even more pitiably in syrupy manufactured crises. Read full review
12
Slant MagazineR. Kurt OsenlundFeb 2, 2012
Any goodwill it boasts is terminally suppressed, buried beneath a layer of bullshit as thick as blubber. Read full review
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