The winner of the Audience Award at the 2004 Edinburgh International Film Festival, "Rory O'Shea Was Here" is an extraordinary story of determination that fuses highly emotional drama with bracingly boisterous humor. Inspired by the experiences of real people, the film follows two young men with physical disabilities as they band together and seize an opportunity to savor life on their own terms.
All his life, Michael Connolly (Steven Robertson) has lived in the residential care of Dublin's Carrigmore Home for the Disabled. Michael has cerebral palsy, uses a motorized wheelchair, and has a significant speech impairment. Most people find it difficult to make out what he is saying, and simply stop trying. But Rory O'Shea (James McAvoy), a new arrival at Carrigmore, is not like most people -- or any of the other Carrigmore residents. Rory is able to understand Michael. Rory has Duchenne muscular dystrophy, a degenerative muscle-wasting condition. All Rory has are the use of two of his ...
Kurt Russell stars as coach Herb Brooks in the story of how the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team toppled the seemingly invincible Soviet Union squad to capture the gold medal. A former U.S. player himself, Brooks was the last skater to be cut from the 1960 U.S. Olympic team, the most recent one to win the gold medal before Brooks became the team coach. He cobbled together a group of players and taught them to excel at the European game. Even so, the Russian team had won four consecutive gold medals and was so good that it defeated a team of National Hockey League all-stars. The U.S. team wasn't expected to even make the medal rounds. But led by Brooks, the team defeated the Soviet Union in the semifinal round, then bested Finland in the finals to win the gold.