A Smile as Big as the Moon (2012)

Just so...so bad

Crappy film

It's a mild crowd pleaser for people who are exhausted by blockbusters.

All that we are seeing on the screen is happening with real people, real action sequences in the background, forcing the eye to watch as if we were there.

Well,I have written thousands of reviews at IMDb and have stated that I am a big Moira Kelly fan. When she appeared many movies like "The Cutting Edge", "Chaplin", "Daybreak" and "Twin Peaks" back in the 1990's,she was obviously positioned to become the next Hollywood superstar being extremely talented and very pretty.Too bad that she felt that Hollywood is in contrast to what she is all about and didn't like the staples of Hollywood films - sex and violence -that she decided to leave Los Angeles and instead to do independent films like "Entertaining Angels:The Dorothy Day Story". She still found success on TV being in Aaron Sorkin's "West Wing" for one season and in "One Tree Hill" for five seasons.Now,she is relegated to doing TV movies.I started to search TV movies where she is involved with being a still a big fan of hers and found "A Smile As Big As The Moon" wherein she plays the wife of special education teacher,Mike Kersjes. "A Smile As Big As The Moon" stars John Corbett together with Jessy Schram, Logan Huffman,Moira Kelly, and performers who actually have learning disabilities.It is based on the memoirs of the special education teacher,Mike Kersjes,who has high dreams for his students with learning disabilities. He intends to raise money for his special-ed students to join the NASA space camp which is a program best suited for intellectually gifted and intelligent students. Since it is a TV movie,we get to see the expected predictability that Mike is able to overcome the obstacles such as lack of funds,non-support of the school administration, and the lack of experience that NASA has in accommodating these type of students. But in spite of these things,I found the movie truly touching and memorable. It tries to tell the message of the triumph of the human spirit and respect for individuals despite their limitations. Aside from this great story,I also found the portrayal of John Corbett as Mike Kersjes great especially when it presents his character's determination and persistence in allowing his special education students to dream of big things in their life.Also worthy of recognition is Jessy Schram in the role of Robynn as Mike's co-teacher in a special education class.As for Moira,I found her performance as Mike's wife great as well being supportive of her husband's ambitious project and encouraging her husband through the numerous obstacles that he has to overcome and when trying to suggest things to him with dialogues such as "Genius is keeping things simple".Overall,this was a truly inspiring TV movie that reminds us of the triumph of human spirit and encouragement of people to reach for their goals in spite of their physical and mental impairments or limitations.It was also nice to see Moira Kelly once again and being involved in this type of projects despite being only in a supporting role nor a Hollywood superstar rather than being involved in movies that only shows sex and violence and being a Hollywood superstar at that.

I had really looked forward to seeing this movie as i thought the subject matter was great, but I actually hated it - so superficial and banal and ridiculously sentimental and unbelievable. The acting was pretty awful all around but Louise Linton in particular was horrifyingly bad. She was supposedly a counselor for special education students but I thought she was completely unbelievable as an empathetic person. It seemed to me that her image was the most important thing to her and I could almost picture her directing every shot to make sure it highlighted her best profile. I can't believe she calls herself an actress - let's hope we don't see any more of her. Don't waste your time on this piece of fluff.

This film brought tears of Joy to my eyes as I watched it. Anyone who doesn't like this movie needs to have their emotions checked out!There are so many great aspects of this film..The kid actors were fabulous and of course John Corbett does a great job as always.. The guy who played the owner of Big Dan's was really good and the voice of the Space Camp judge I loved. The judge really made me feel like he was also pulling for these kids.This is one of the best TV movies I have seen in a long long time.. Way to go ABC and Hallmark!I would highly recommend this movie! The best part is you can watch it with you kids, not many movies I can say that about.

I shall rate this highly as it deserves it. As far as being realistic, this remains to be seen.We see the supposed conventional special education class with its myriad of problems. Of course, we have the heavy set girl, an African-American named Jamal, fighting, temper tantrums, dyslexia, you name it. What we do have here that we don't find in the vast majority of special education classes-the intrinsic motivation to learn and the required knowledge and ability are all there as well.We have the teacher who never gives up on his pupils along with a wonderful co-teacher. We have the principal who feels that these students are not qualified to go to space camp.Against the odds, the students do go and show everyone up in the process. There is the temper tantrums displayed but in the end our students win all the awards at space graduation.What a wonderful world. The picture is beautifully done. The characters are most sympathetic, but visit an urban school setting and reality takes hold.Interesting scientific information was displayed. Kudos to all!