Kelley Fliehler (Erin Moriarty) and Caroline "Line" Found (Danika Yarosh) are lifelong best friends on their Iowa high school champion volleyball team. Line is the outgoing captain and a real leader. Kelley is struggling to be one of the starters. When new cutie Alex moves into the neighborhood, it's Line who introduces Kelley to him. Kathy Bresnahan (Helen Hunt) is their obsessive coach. Line has her own personal difficulties as she and her father (William Hurt) struggle with her mother's illness. When Line dies in a tragic accident, Kelley and the team have to bring themselves back from the darkness.

This is an inspirational film about a tragedy-turned-inspiration true story. It's very standard and very inspirational. As a movie, it's inspiring although it has a few flaws. The volleyball sequences lack drama. It's also a flaw to concentrate on Line instead of Kelley during the early scenes. Line may be the star of the story but Kelley is the emotional vehicle through which this story is told. When Bres finds Kelley in the library, she needs to give permission to the rest of the team. That is the most profound scene and that section represents the emotional climax of the movie. Everything after that is anti-climatic. Overall, this is a nice little film about a community dealing with a devastating loss but not much more.

The Miracle Season (2 out of 5 stars).

The Miracle Season is a drama based on a real story of a high school student who was the captain of her volleyball team and the heart that drives every one to be the best. Until, she was killed in a moped accident. Yes, the real story is sad. Caroline Found was an every day down to earth kind of girl. Were every one liked her in school. She was always energetic, happy, and always motivating others to be the best. There was barely anything to not like about her. The film lacked in delivering a character depth with her and the rest of the cast. The story of the real event was incredible. But the film lacked in the inspirational theme.

The plot follows Caroline (Danika Yarosh) the volleyball captain of her high school team. She is well loved, caring, and inspirational to others. They have been undefeated. She has a best friend Kelley (Erin Moriarty) since childhood. She has a loving father Dr. Ernie (William Hurt). And her mother who was diagnosed with cancer. Caroline inspires her to get better and that she will be there to watch her graduate high school and see her get married. When Caroline takes off in a moped. She was killed in an accident. Which caused everyone to grief including her team and friends. And the team struggles and loses several games. Coach Kathy (Helen Hunt) has trouble trying to inspire the team. She ask Caroline's best friend Kelley to help motivate the team to do what Caroline would want them to do. After a few tough practices that causes the team to run plenty of laps. They find their winning streak again.

The real true story was probably more inspirational and sad than the film tries to be. The film lacks in a better script. The characters are flat and one dimensional which makes it hard to believe that they were inspired. Caroline played by Danika Yarosh was more obnoxious with her loud, annoying, and attention seeking behavior. Sure, the direction could have tried to rearrange the performance. Danika Yarosh was decent in Jack Reacher movie but in this movie she was energetic and a bit irritating. Erin Moriarty was also okay but the script did not give much detail for her to work with. Helen Hunt's character was underdeveloped as well. As we know she was struggling going through a divorce and trying to get her team back on their feet. William Hurt is a talented actor but the character was very flat.

For an inspirational movie, this one was a little disappointing. The team was going through grief. They were unmotivated in practice. But the film flies by so quick with Kathy putting them through some tough training drills and they are all back on their feet instantly, and ready to play. It just was not believable and cliché.

Overall, The Miracle Season is a bad film. The real story was sad and inspirational. Sadly, the film lacked in delivering that story with the script, flat characters, tedious acting, and a cliché direction.

7/10 - an enthralling high school sports drama that effectively translates an uplifting true story for the big screen