Action-less Sports Story

Rating: 7/10 (18 January 2015)

But that doesn't mean it's a bad story. This movie has a lot of elements at play, and as I review the movie, I like to break it down by specifics: Plot, Cast, Acting, Presentation and Reception.
Plot: A GM for an NFL team begins to prepare for a draft that evening. As the day unfolds, the GM makes trades and deals that begin to make the audience wonder if he's going to make a complete donkey of himself and the team, or if he can pull off some kind of miracle. As far as a plot goes, it's fairly boring, it's essentially a football-less football story. If you watch this movie believing that you'd watch a football game, you'll be sadly mistake, although, you will get to watch a few plays where an Ohio State Buckeye takes down a QB...O-H! The story is much more interesting than described, and to be honest, had I not seen the trailer before renting the movie, I would have never rented it. Once you see the movie in it's entirety, you'll become entranced with the main character, Sonny, and wonder if this strategy is actually going to work. Although, this movie is not based on a true story, there was an instance of life imitating art, it was oddly similar to a situation that happened in the 2014 NFL draft (which happened after the movie) in which Johnny Manzel struggled to be drafted, despite strong belief that he would be the #1 draft pick, and was eventually picked up by none other than the team spotlighted in "Draft Day", The Cleveland Browns. **SPOILER Because it's a fictional work, Sonny predictably comes through with several first round picks, fixes the issues with both the Head Coach and his pregnant girlfriend, and in the end has a renewed spirit for his job. Before you pick up this flick, you knew that this would happen. I can't blame the writers for wanting everyone to feel good at the end.
CAST: The cast primarily focus' on one person, Sonny, played by Kevin Costner. The rest of the cast was B-list celebrities, including love interest, Jennifer Garner and volatile head coach, played by Denis Leary. The cast was a mix of people you'd probably recognize but wouldn't know their names and of course, people you simply don't recognize. As with each sports film, the cast also included former NFL stars as well as former and current NFL broadcasters and staffers.
ACTING: To me this was the down side to this flick. The acting by Costner was okay, when he's in the heat of things, I believe his skills were great, but the emotional scenes...well...not a fan. I'm not a fan of Jennifer Garner and I think this movie highlights why. Garner's facial expressions throughout the whole film were either lacking or overly expressive. Most of the time, she had the expression: Shocked.
Presentation: I thought the film's overlays and the constant shots overlapping were a very interesting choice. Most of the time, when having a phone conversation, the director uses cut shots, and it can be a very choppy cut. This movie showed both sides of the conversation and had movement. It was a very interesting choice and I personally enjoyed it. The movie would have been horrible if it had all cut scenes.
RECEPTION: This is how I received the movie. How did I like the movie? I personally am not a big football fan, but I still found myself very engaged in the plot. As I lead into this review, it is an action-less, football-less sports film, but it's still a good sports film. I believe that it's a film that even someone like my wife, who does not like sports, or even understand what a draft was or how it worked, was able to watch and enjoy it. I don't believe everyone will enjoy this film, but a target audience will be for adults, likely to be those who enjoy football at some level. Overall, I think most will enjoy this film, which is why I rated it a 7, and would recommend to anyone above the age of 16.