Continuing the theme of the 2015 awards season, where movie releases have failed to meet expectations due to a lack of emotional audience engagement, comes Concussion, a true story dealing with the effects of professional football concussions. The movie, set in 1982 Pittsburgh, begins with one of the city’s most recognizable faces (Mike Webster of the Super Bowl-winning Steelers teams of the ’70s) living in his truck and slowly losing his mind. Mike (David Morse – The Green Mile, Disturbia) gives the most poignant performance in the entire movie. In a film where we could and should care for all sorts of characters, Mike is the only supporting character who evokes any emotion in us or allows us to feel any empathy. In just a few short scenes, Mike can convey to us that despite what his doctors say, he has significant life problems that are a result of something that happened to his mind from the time he retired in 1990 until the time frame at the start of the film (2002). His 14-year career included 150 straight games as a starting center from 1976 to 1986.
Although we all know going into the movie that this is a Will Smith (Ali, I Am Legend) film, Morse’s Mike is the key figure for the first 20 minutes or so. We need his backstory to make this film have a foundation. What happened was that one of the most recognizable faces of the city of Pittsburgh could go from having it all to experiencing bouts of depression, amnesia, dementia, and acute bone and muscle pain. How come nothing shows up on any of the tests administered by former team doctor Dr. Julian Bailes (Alec Baldwin – The Cooler, The Departed), who now works in his private practice? Still, it has an ongoing doctor-patient relationship with Mike. Why is he living in his vehicle in the middle of winter? Virtually uncontrollable is this man who is addicted to drugs and self-mutilation. And then he dies. He dies in a way that nobody should die. He was tied alone while crying for help. Concussion does a great job of hooking you from the get-go. It’s Morse, as you’ve never seen him before, and we can feel the utter mental, emotional, and physical pain that he is in, and we genuinely believe him when he is frantically searching for answers because he doesn’t know why.
Smith plays Dr. Bennet Omalu, a Nigerian pathologist with more degrees than there are days of the week. While performing his autopsies, he talks to the dead to get to know them and their story. Danny (Mike O’Malley – television’s Glee, television’s Yes, Dear) is more budget-driven than Omalu. When Mike lands on his table, he has no idea who he is, and despite Danny’s plea to wrap everything up quickly, Omalu promises to give this body the same due diligence he provides all of the others. Through the autopsy, it appears that everything is in order. However, Omalu wants to conduct more tests on the brain because people don’t change like Mike does without explanation. Danny says that he’ll have to pay for that with his own money. And through these tests, it goes without saying that we learn that he suffered from repeated concussions throughout his career.
Omalu is met with as much praise for his findings as he is with resistance. On the positive side of things, he had come up with a successful reason why some of these people were dying in their 50s when all these other tests proved them to be perfectly healthy. On the other hand, he was taking on the NFL, one of the most influential organizations in the United States. Who did this doctor, who wasn’t even an American citizen, think he was threatening to put a black eye on America’s most popular sport? Many more powerful individuals with significantly more money were willing to take on Omalu. If he wasn’t ready to admit that he had fabricated his report, he was essentially admitting to fraud and potentially ruining his career. To say his feelings about America were mixed would be an understatement. Nonetheless, Omalu was a man committed to his beliefs, so we knew we were in for a battle.
In his first directorial efforts, Peter Landesman (Felt) excels in some areas (casting, character development, and telling a story with a clear beginning, middle, and end) and struggles in others. Much like Joy, Carol, Steve Jobs, and The Danish Girl, Concussion struggles to truly connect with the audience, unlike movies like Room, Brooklyn, Straight Outta Compton, and Spotlight. Thus, this movie ultimately fails more than it succeeds. We were saddled with many characters that were difficult to distinguish from one another late in the film. As a result, it became much more of a litigation movie than I expected it to be, and that was a bit of a bummer.
I mentioned The Big Short as easy to inform or entertain, but not the easiest. Concussion doesn’t do that. I understand that, given the subject matter, but the first half is better than the second. Concussion is a movie that we should see because of its relevance in our world. Too many people are suffering because of repeated traumatic brain injuries. We need to make it safer. I love the sport, but the NFL and other leagues are addressing this issue by having players undergo concussion protocol testing.
Will Smith will receive his third Best Actor Academy nomination, but, unfortunately for him, he’s got nothing on Leonardo DiCaprio (The Revenant) or Eddie Redmayne (The Danish Girl). He, Michael Fassbender (Steve Jobs), and a third actor yet to be named likely make up my top five.
Plot 9/10 – This was a story that needed to be told; however, its scope could have been broader and its narrative more emotionally engaging.
Character Development 9/10 – One of Landesman’s strong suits here…each of his characters has grown tremendously from the start of the film through its end.
Character Chemistry 9/10 – Prema Mutiso [Gugu Mbatha-Raw] works well as Omalu’s love interest…she allows him to loosen up some from his robot-like approach to life…Baldwin was also very good in his scenes with Smith.
Acting 10/10 (Quite honestly, I’m not sure Will Smith has been better…this is saying something…you forget it’s him at times, and it’s not just because of his accent)
Screenplay 8/10 – Again…good, but other parts dealing with traumatic brain injury could have been hit on a bit more.
Directing 7.5/10 – A novice director…hard to top this debut…but something was missing for me…and it was the lack of overall emotion I felt towards what was happening. I expected to be engrossed by just about everything I saw [especially considering the first 20 minutes], but I wasn’t.
Cinematography 8/10
Sound 7.5/10
Hook and Reel 9/10 – It gets you early and then ever so slowly loses its steam with some of its courtroom scenes and policy issue type stuff.
Universal Relevance 10/10 – Concussions from repeated brain trauma are one of the most critical issues ever, and they seem to be developing at an alarming rate with each passing day. In one sense, this is probably the most relevant movie of the year.
87%
B
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