The port business has dried up on the banks of Madison, Indiana, a once-thriving Norman Rockwell painting on the Ohio River, but the town's chief export is still gumption, which its citizens can produce in unlimited supply. Based on a true story, Madison slaps a fresh coat of paint over the Hoosiers model and hopes nobody can tell the difference: Same old-timey small town (even 1971, when the movie is set, feels like the '50s), same scrappy underdogs locking horns with the big-city giants. Only the sport has changed. Instead of basketball, passions in Madison have always run high for the more marginal sport of hydroplane racing, in which sleek, aerodynamic motorboats take the speed and form of Indy cars, at least relative to the bulkier design of everyday machines. In spite of its size, the town still holds a big annual regatta on the racing circuit, but the film centers on one magical year when Madison hosted the esteemed Gold Cup event and made an unlikely run for the prize.
Whereas most souped-up hydroplanes enjoy the money and technology afforded by corporate sponsorship, the Madison community collectively owns a rickety machine that it carts around to major regattas. Obviously, the "Miss Madison" boat is a major underdog, but the film makes it seem like a soapbox racer entered in the Daytona 500. Lacking a Gene Hackman of its own to cut through the Heartland sentiment, Madison instead casts Jim Caviezel, the personification of a bland Midwestern casserole, to play the humble crew chief assigned to bring glory to the sunken town. Plagued by an economic downturn that has left many without jobs, the townspeople look to the upcoming regatta as a chance to restore its pride, but they have enough trouble raising the money to host the Gold Cup, let alone competing with a jerry-rigged dinosaur. Caviezel retired from racing after losing a friend and injuring himself in an accident, but when his driver drops out, it's up to him to get behind the wheel.
Narrated by Phantom Menace imp Jake Lloyd, who brings young Anakin Skywalker precociousness and an occasional Darth Vader glower to the role of Caviezel's son, Madison couldn't be more wholesome if they served it with a tall glass of fresh milk. There's something undeniably rousing about rooting for the underdog, but co-writer/director William Bindley contrasts the slick, moneyed commercial racers and his scrappy backwater heroes as if the competition were Rocky versus Ivan Drago. It's no surprise that the truth was fudged for dramatic effect: The town won the bid for the Gold Cup without contest, more than a hundred thousand people showed for the regatta, and Caviezel's real-life counterpart was already driving well before the '71 race. But as the saying goes, "When the legend becomes fact, print the legend."