Actors save trite screenplay once again

Rating: 7/10 (4 September 2010)

Screenplay: tripe Direction: competent FX: good Acting: excellent
A great true story is...made into a Football Movie in space? Harris is the coach, and Hanks the QB. Kevin Bacon? He's the RB who fumbled the ball in the 1st Quarter and must now redeem himself. Paxton? The Tight End who sprained his knee in the 3rd Quarter but somehow pulls through the pain anyway. The man in the simulator? He's the benched chap who is dying to be out there on the field with the boys. You know from Frame 1 that the Hail Mary will be caught. And the dialogue is not simply shopworn, it's so manipulative you can almost feel the heartstrings being tugged at.
And yet...Harris, Hanks, Bacon, and Paxton, play it with the sort of conviction that would be better applied to the last production ever of HAMLET. The last three are shot in close-up, just like M. Falconetti, for almost the entire film. If any one of them doubted for one second what he was doing, the movie would fail.
The 1930s (Rest In Peace) were the Golden Age of screen writing. But right now, right under your nose, is the Golden Age of screen acting, and no one will realize it until it's gone.