I’ve got to say, Big Miracle is a heck of a lot more entertaining and enjoyable than I remotely figured it was going to be before I stepped into the theatre. Inspired by the true story of three Gray Whales trapped in the Alaskan ice in October of 1988, the movie is actually a pretty straightforward and simplistic affair that never pushes the emotion or the inherently melodramatic nature of its narrative as much as it potentially could have. Director Ken Kwapis, back in Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants mode and thankfully as far removed from License to Wed or Dunston Checks In territory as you can get, does a fine job of keeping things under control, showing a steady hand that’s far more subtle and thus life-affirming than it arguably has any right to be.

Drew Barrymore in Big Miracle © Universal Pictures

Granted, the framing device is a bit hackneyed and contrived. You’ve got Alaska newsman Adam Carlson (John Krasinski) breaking the story which of course leads to the arrival of his former girlfriend Greenpeace spokeswoman Rachel Kramer (Drew Barrymore) arriving on the scene and you just know what that means. Meanwhile, the phalanx of major network journalists that follow her of course have to include Jill Jerard (Kristen Bell), a California personality that Adam has a major crush on. Mix in adolescent Alaskan native Nathan (Ahmaogak Sweeney), a kid trying to break free of his grandfather’s (John Pingayak) obsession with the ‘old ways,’ and an oil baron (Ted Danson), who sees a P.R. goldmine in helping the whales get to the Pacific, and you’ve got enough too-cute elements to fill four different motion pictures.

Yet somehow Kwapis and screenwriters Jack Amiel (The Shaggy Dog) and Michael Begler (The Prince and Me), working from the book Freeing the Whales by Thomas Rose, get it all to work. By keeping the focus on the main, heavily covered central storyline, by mixing in the real-life exploits of Colonel Scott Boyer (Dermot Mulroney) and former President Reagan aid Kelly Meyers (Vinessa Shaw), the filmmakers somehow keep the schmaltz to a minimum. Yes it can get a little silly at times, and sure the saccharine can at times break right through the ice far more completely than I usually appreciate, overall this movie had me smiling all the way start to finish, not exactly a trait to scoff at.

Barrymore can do this sort of stuff in her sleep, and other than a painful sequence with her insisting she has to climb into the water to be with the whales she has plenty of moments here reflecting an interior mellifluence that’s rather divine. Krasinski more or less equals her, and even though he’s not straying too far out of familiar territory (i.e. “The Office”) his charm does tend to ooze off the screen in a way that’s borderline sublime. But the real scene-stealer is Pingayak, the Alaskan newcomer energizing the screen with a wizened world-weary sagacity that’s immediately palpable. I couldn’t take my eyes off of him, and whether he is bickering with Sweeney or chanting prayers over the whales’ frozen prison he’s a glorious force to be reckoned elevating the proceedings every time his face flashes across the screen.

The final product is more A Dolphin Tale than Fly Away Home or Never Cry Wolf, Kwapis not quite having the directorial chops to make the finished product anything more than an above-average family affair you’d find airing on Lifetime or the ABC Family channel. All the same, Big Miracle struck a chord with me, and I can’t say its saga of resilience and faith in the face of the unthinkable didn’t connect. I liked it, and as positives go they don’t get much better than that.

• Big Miracle Theatrical Trailer