3.5 stars. Rated PG, for mild intensity and brief violence
By Derrick Bang
Inspirational sports sagas are
the ultimate feel-good movies; they engage our souls and pluck at the heart,
particularly when adversity and underdog status are part of the equation.
And most particularly when
they’re true.
 |
| Coach Bob Ladouceur (Jim Caviezel, center right), assistant coach Terry Eidson (Michael Chiklis, center left) and members of the De La Salle Spartans react with undisguised dread as the much larger and tougher members of the Long Beach Poly team take the field. What follows is, by far, this film's most exciting chapter. |
Director Thomas Carter has
fashioned a stirring drama from former Contra
Costa Times sportswriter Neil Hayes’ 2003 nonfiction book, which profiled
De La Salle High School football coach Bob Ladouceur at a point when his team
had amassed a truly stunning streak of victories. Scripters Scott Marshall
Smith and David Zelon have remained pretty close to established fact, allowing
for the usual composite characters, one fast-and-loose modification of what
happened when, and a needlessly melodramatic sidebar conflict between a young
player and his overbearing father.
Those issues aside, Carter’s film
is far more accurate than most that claim to be “inspired” by actual events; he
respectfully captures the deeply spiritual tone that characterized Ladouceur’s
entire coaching career, along with the atypically close ties and locker room
candor that bonded the young players.
Yes, they really did take the
field, at the start of each game, holding hands.
At first blush, star Jim Caviezel
is a perfect fit for Ladouceur; as archive footage of the coach reveals, during
the film’s closing credits, Caviezel looks and carries himself in much the same
way. He adds the same heartfelt weight to the soulful pep talks that were
typical of Ladouceur’s approach: “Winning a lot of football games is doable.
Teaching kids there’s more to life, that’s hard.”
We don’t doubt, for a moment,
that Caviezel’s Ladouceur genuinely cares about every single one of his
players, off the field even more than on.
That said, Caviezel never has
been an expressive actor, and those same closing-credits clips also show that
the actor lacks the actual coach’s fire and passion. Caviezel is one of the
acting community’s Mr. Cools, as his ongoing stint on TV’s Person of Interest reveals quite clearly. He’s dry and flinty, much
like Clint Eastwood, and relies on half-smiles, grim silences and stern frowns
to get his emotive point across.
Doesn’t always work. Co-star
Laura Dern, as Ladouceur’s wife Bev, acts circles around him. She conveys
greater emotional depth, in a few brief scenes, than Caviezel manages in the
entire film. This is most apparent during the crisis that opens this story, as
Ladouceur narrowly survives a heart attack that would have killed many men.
Caviezel simply cannot sell the epiphany of Ladouceur’s initial post-recovery
chat with his wife, as he acknowledges having been an absentee husband and
father because of over-commitment to the job.
Nor does the film really address
that issue, moving forward. Given Caviezel’s thespic limitations, that’s
probably for the best.
