Will Smith stars in this movie about the doctor that discovered CTE (Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy). Essentially, this is what this movie is presented as. We don’t really get to go into anything else. It’s a shame, because this movie has some really interesting turns it could have made, and instead, it chose the easy way out.
something that even different actors in this movie have trouble with (I’m looking at you Alec Baldwin). All the scenes with Smith as a doctor are terrific, and he throws out terms and medical jargon with ease: even better, he makes them understandable without making it seem dumbed down. However, the most powerful scenes aren’t necessarily with its stars, but with the beat players. Throughout the film, we visit many ex-football players in their current lives. These scenes are extremely emotional, because we are treated to clips of the players excelling on the field as well. To see someone that is so dominant in a game stumble around and be unable to articulate what they are trying to say is unnerving. Then to find out that these characters are killed (or some even kill themselves) can truly shake you. I think the most brilliant tactic was using the commentary of “big hits” and splicing it to the little league football. It makes you wonder and think about all the damage these young children are doing to their brains. However, despite the fact that up until this point I have been largely positive, the movie is kinda like my review: halfway through it falls apart. We could have been treated to continued medical science, but instead we figure that it’s all good enough. We could have explored what it is like to be ousted by
performance has gone to waste. I won’t say that the movie was perfect up to this point (the scenes where the relationship between Omalu and his wife are explored seem extremely forced, despite good performances) (and they completely kill the momentum of the main story), but it was trending in a very positive direction. Unfortunately, the inability to tell a compelling story continues to be the bane of highly marketed movies.
I’m going to give Concussion a “C+”. Check out more on this movie at IMDB.
2 Comments
9/23/2016 01:39:57 pm
Didn't seem like that great of a movie to me. With these kind of movies (like Sully or Snowden), you usually get a lead actor who does great, you get a director that's mildly competent, but they never know how to make the movie better than average-ish.
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Shannon
9/23/2016 02:57:09 pm
Agreed. Biopics or movies centering on a single person are tough. I will of course come up with an exception as soon as I press send on this comment though.
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