You're telling me James MacArthur and Mackenzie Astin <b>aren't</b> related? I'm not even joking, they looked exactly the same in their respective youngers years; I thought I was back in 1950s Disney when I saw Astin appear. <em>'Iron Will'</em> is a good film. It begins quite slowly but soon enough picks up the pace thanks to the dog-sled racing, which I enjoyed alongside the newspaper and animal parts of the story. The stuff, meanwhile, with Will (Astin), McTeague (Brian Cox) et al. isn't majorly interesting to me, but it still makes for alright viewing. Astin is more than decent in the lead role, while Kevin Spacey is (unfortunately) solid in his role as media man Kingsley. With that noted, it isn't really a film that is set alight by its cast. They all serve their purpose but aren't anything great. The animals, racing and hearty narrative make up for that though. A fine film, even if it does just narrowly avoid 3*.

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