Costner knows sports movies, and this is another enjoyable one

Rating: 9/10 (14 April 2020)

I've been an avid fan of the NFL for most of my life, and find great joy whenever watching a game. However, I've never been one of those guys who follows the off-season stuff, especially the draft. Since I'm not a college sports fan, I don't know any of the players, so watching a draft feels pointless to me. As a result, I was not all that hopeful that Draft Day (the film) would click for me. The NFL draft has always seemed like such a dull process and I could not see how they would make an interesting movie out of it. I should have trusted the magic of Kevin Costner in a sports film, which has only failed me once. I found this movie delightful. It presents the draft as a fascinating chess match that requires a ton of planning, and a team of advisers who try to explore every possible angle. Even with all that preparation, when the clock starts ticking it can rattle even the most seasoned professionals, and require a lot of thinking on your toes. I know dramatic twists like we see in this film are probably few and far between, but it's still fun to explore the possibility.
There were a couple aspects of Draft Day that didn't click quite as well for me. The biggest problem was the family relationship subplot. It worked to show some of our main character's history, and it did establish one more point of pressure that he had to contend with while trying to do his job. However, it didn't quite have the impact on the central plot that I would have liked, and the payoff with his mother at the end lacked the strength of the other dramatic moments. It didn't bother me that any of this was included in the film, but I wish it added more to the story. My other minor nitpick is simply the Cleveland Browns of it all. Believe me, as a lifelong Detroit Lions fan, I know what it's like to root for a franchise that can never get it right. But having the Browns as the central team in this story had me chuckling more than once. It's just hard to buy into the fact that any manager (even in a fictional film) could do something special enough to make them a winning team. Needless to say, these are fairly minor nitpicks. I loved Draft Day, and I'm considering a re-watch soon.