I’m not
normally one for sports movies that aren’t The
Mighty Ducks, but this one jumped out at me. To be fair, it’s more of a sports-adjacent movie that shows the potential
human cost of the American football machine.
Overall, while I enjoyed the film, I feel it’s not quite as good as I wanted
it to be.
When
Dr. Bennet Omalu, a Nigerian pathologist working at a hospital in Pittsburgh,
finds the body of a former Steeler lying on his table, he’s drawn into a
medical mystery that will pit him against one of America’s most powerful sports
industries. Despite the deceased football
player’s well-documented mental instability in recent years (he died from
self-inflicted wounds,) Bennet sees no apparent damage or disease in the
brain. Digging deeper, he discovers the
link between the repeated concussions suffered by football players and gradual
mental deterioration. It’s a truth the
NFL is most definitely not ready to
hear.
My main
critique with this movie is that it feels a bit listless, and I’m not entirely
sure why. The story is by turns
fascinating, shocking, and heartbreaking, and all the actors turn in good
performances. Something in the
direction, maybe? This may sound weird,
but the feeling I come away with is that the movie as a whole isn’t as invested
in the story as its individual parts are.
It’s like it doesn’t quite add up.
Which is too bad, because, like I said, that story is kind of
amazing. While I knew that the
“concussions are really bad for your brain” connection was made much more recently than it should have
been, it hadn’t occurred to me that the NFL would try to cover up. I hadn’t thought of them bullying or
attempting to discredit the man who discovered that connection, although it’s
obvious in hindsight. After all, it’s
like the smoking/lung cancer link – an obvious horror, but one that’s
remarkably inconvenient for an incredibly-profitable industry. I guess I’d never thought of the NFL like
that, but it makes sense.
The
film is great at showing the suffering of these men, who don’t know why they’re
going crazy. They and their families are
portrayed with the utmost care, and we see the toll of the damage the NFL is
trying to deny. Another successful
aspect, for me, is the depiction of both the subtle and blatant xenophobia
Bennet experiences. On an ordinary day,
he encounters people who treat him like an outsider, and when he goes up
against the NFL (what’s more American than football?), the distrust and
discomfort turn vicious. I would imagine
that, in real life, some of the hatred thrown Bennet’s way was even uglier, but
the remarks and slights we do see are still all-around awful.
Will
Smith does an excellent job as Bennet (again, you’d think the Academy would’ve
eaten this up – a real person, an underdog against a giant corporation, and a fake accent.) I love the calm, quiet way that he goes about
his work, and the fortitude with which he stands his ground when the NFL pushes
back is extraordinary. The wonderful
Gugu Mbatha-Raw is mostly wasted as Bennet’s love interest, but Alec Baldwin,
Mike O’Malley, and David Morse are very good in supporting roles and there’s a
brief appearance by Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje (Eko from Lost.)
Warnings
No comments:
Post a Comment