Football soap opera

Rating: 6/10 (7 February 2015)

It's less than 13 hours before the start of the NFL draft. Seattle Seahawks Walt Gordon (Chi McBride) is looking to trade away the number one draft which is sure to be quarterback Bo Callanhan. Cleveland Browns GM Sonny Weaver Jr. (Kevin Costner) has the number seventh pick and is under tremendous pressure from owner Anthony Molina (Frank Langella). He struggles in the shadow of his legendary father coach and against the loud-mouth present-day coach Penn (Denis Leary). Ali (Jennifer Garner) just told him that he's going to a dad. Vontae Mack (Chadwick Boseman) is desperate to get picked high and is Sonny's preferred candidate. Earl Jennings (Terry Crews) is the father of lineman Ray Jennings (Arian Foster) who got into some gang trouble. Chris Crawford (Sean Combs) is Bo's agent. Then Sonny's mother Barb (Ellen Burstyn) comes with his ex Angie (Rosanna Arquette) to sprinkle his father's ashes on the field.
I don't know how a real NFL teams operates but these guys look amateurish. Maybe that's the compelling part about the story. It's a movie about a dysfunctional messy team. The deficiency here is in Sonny. He should be flawed but he shouldn't so flustered. Every move he makes is a struggle. Instead of working the draft or working the deals, he gets sidetracked by everybody and everything. Kevin Costner is trying squeeze every moment of melodrama. It is simply too over-written like a football soap opera. The draft drama is pretty good and salvages it from being completely soapy. It's no accident that Costner's character seems to come alive at that point. It's where the real drama occurs rather than some of the made up ones before then. The worst being his father's ashes like his mother wouldn't care that it's a horribly important day.