Inspired by the life of Greg Townsend, a teacher at a medium security correctional school in Colorado, who encourages his pupils, they’re not inmates as Matthew Modine, who plays Townsend, likes to tell people, to work together and cycle a gruelling 700 odd miles from Denver to the Grand Canyon.
There’s not really that much to Townsend’s story other than watching him bond with the four teens as they try to overcome various obstacles, some natural some of their own making that generally involves spandex and lube. Townsend himself has issues relating back to his younger years that involve an overbearing father and this perhaps makes him push that extra mile for the kids.
The trip itself is arranged at the same time that Townsend’s father, who he hasn’t seen for some 30 years, is lying close to death in a hospital not far from their route.
Filled with emotional speeches and some beautiful scenery it’s hard not to like Hard Miles, Modine himself is terrific. It might be a bit overly sentimental and filled with juvenile stereotypes that could have been picked straight out of any other film involving wayward American teens. But it’s hard not to get carried along with the story and by the end director R.J. Daniel Hanna might just have you reaching into your pocket for a Kleenex.
4/5
Hard Miles
1h 49m
Director: R.J. Daniel Hanna
Cast: Matthew Modine, Sean Astin, Cynthia Kaye McWilliams, Leslie David Baker, Jahking Guillory, Jackson Kelly, and Zachary T. Robbins.
