Hard Miles review – Matthew Modine takes troubled teens on

Modine plays amateur cyclist and teacher Greg Townsend, leading troubled teenagers on a gruelling journey across Colorado in a real-life-inspired drama

‘I’ve never had a bike before,” says a teenage boy, grinning from ear to ear. This earnest, likable drama is inspired by the real-life amateur cyclist Greg Townsend, a teacher at a Colorado young offenders educational institution. For years, Townsend led boys on 700-mile bike tours from Denver to the Grand Canyon, sleeping out under the stars. His story has been fictionalised here into a formulaic sports movie that unfolds predictably, exactly on cue, with no surprises or upsets. But I warmed to its sensitivity; it possesses an insistence that these difficult boys are vulnerable and scared kids (undermined only slightly by the fact that the actors playing them look well into their 20s).

Matthew Modine is Townsend, who understands childhood trauma. In flashbacks, we watch him repeatedly beaten up as a boy by his physically abusive father. Not that he is touchy-feely exactly; Townsend is a firm believer in discipline and hard work. His young psychologist colleague, Haddie (Cynthia Kaye McWilliams), rolls her eyes at his discipline-heavy teaching approach.