If there's one actor most closely associated with the sports movie genre,
it's Kevin Costner. If there's a guy who has exemplified the middle-aged, lousy
in life but king on the field archetype it's him, and he's done it unabashed
classics like
Bull Durham and
Field of Dreams. But even in the
underrated golf comedy,
Tin Cup, Costner has excelled at this very
specific sort of character, which is why it's been so strange to see him away
from it for so long. For me at least, it's a role I've sorely missed seeing,
but never would I have thought to see it re-emerge in a football
dramedy/thriller like
Draft Day.
In a sense, all of those earlier Costner films are a form of wish
fulfillment. Wish fulfillment for guys, anyway, where the breaks go exactly
right on the green or the home run sails over the fence with glorious
perfection, all while some gorgeous woman cheers on from the stands.
Draft
Day kind of follows that same pattern, except replace the stands with an
office and the home runs with draft picks. Think the behind-the-scenes insider
jargon of Moneyball mixed with the Cleveland woe of Major League, all wrapped
in the effortless branding and gigantic egos of the NFL.
Costner proves he's a natural of the gridiron as much as the baseball
diamond, playing Cleveland Browns general manager Sonny Weaver, Jr. Sonny's
life is in disarray, and it couldn't happen at a worse time. His father, the
team's legendary head coach he was forced to fire a couple of seasons ago, has
recently passed away. The tension this decision has created with his mother
(Ellen Burstyn) is thicker than an offensive tackle; he's been having a secret
romance with the team's salary cap analyst, Ali (Jennifer Garner), who has just
revealed she's pregnant; and all of this occurs just as the NFL Draft is mere
hours away. Coming off a mediocre year plagued by injury, Sonny is basically given
an ultimatum by the team owner (Frank Langella) to "make a splash" at
the Draft or risk getting canned.
While the life decisions Sonny is forced to make, like choosing whether he
even wants to be a father, are familiar and play out with few surprises, it's
the wheeling 'n dealing of big time professional football that really moves the
chains. It's new ground for Ivan Reitman, the legendary director of many comedy
staples in the 1980s, and he overcompensates when trying to capture the
frenetic pace and anxiety of NFL war rooms where every decision literally means
millions of dollars. Through a combination of 24-style ticking clocks and split
screens that would make Jack Bauer throw up his arms in protest, Reitman zips
us through the many internal and external factors intruding in on Sonny's
decisions. Taking the ultimate gamble, he decides to mortgage the team's
future, trading away three future #1 draft picks to secure the top spot right
now. Not only does it send ripples through the league, but what should have
made his choice easier only gets tougher.
The consensus #1 choice, and would fit the owner's splash-making criteria,
is blue chip quarterback Bo Callahan (Josh Pence), a pretty boy with a hot shot
agent (P. Diddy, appropriately) and possible character issues. On the other end
of the spectrum is the guy Sonny wants, linebacker and tackling machine Vontae
Mack (Chadwick Boseman), a natural team leader and a genuinely good guy.
There's also the hometown boy, running back Ray Jennings (played by Houston
Oilers RB Arian Foster), whose father (Terry Crews) played for the Browns.
Choosing Callahan would make the franchise happy, including their arrogant
Super Bowl-winning coach (Denis Leary), but is it necessarily the right thing
to do?
So yeah, this is one of those alternate realities where things like morals and
personal codes of honor intrude in the high-stakes world of NFL decision
making. Like that exists! It's often hokey and preachy, frequently serving as a
self-aggrandizing advertisement for the NFL and the purity of its wealthy
players. When one player, who is destined to make millions even if he drops a
few spots, laments how badly his family needs him to be the #1 pick so he can
make more, it's a little tough to sympathize with his "plight". But
Sonny is a guy you genuinely want to see succeed, and Costner gives him all of
the rough edges we've seen in most of his other genre characters. His chemistry
with Garner, at her feistiest for the first time in way too long, is playful
and a lot of fun until it comes time to make some tough choices. Dallas Cowboys
owner Jerry Jones might see a little of himself (okay, a lot) in the
performance given by Langella.
But at the same time,
Draft Day is an authentic window into the NFL like
we've never seen before on the silver screen. There's a certain thrill in
actually seeing your team represented as part of the story; their actual team
uniforms, logos, stadiums, and players are all there. Even league commissioner
Roger Goodell shows up, only to get booed by the Draft's typically rowdy fans.
It really does feel like you're being let in on a secret peek behind the
curtain, or sitting right there at Radio City Music Hall. While
Draft Day
is hardly a Super Bowl champ, NFL fans aching for some football will want to run
and check it out.
