by Walter Chaw Closer in spirit to Mystery, Alaska
than to the similarly Olympics - inspired
Cool Runnings, Men with Brooms is an underdog sports intrigue mashed together with a bedroom farce — and neither dog - eared formula is handled with very much originality, while uncomfortable subplots concerning adultery, alcoholism, and healing father /
son rifts (see also Hoosiers) vie for a level of pathos that always feels out of place in what is essentially The Bad News Bears (or The Replacements, or Slap Shot) for curling.