Heartwarmer

Rating: 7/10 (1 April 2004)

"Radio" is a fictional fact-based account of the relationship which develops between a South Carolina small town high school athletic director (Harris) and a mentally challenged black man (Gooding). There's little going on in this sweetly sentimental film which juxtaposes campus life and football with family life and one man's life altering experience through a very rewarding though unlikely friendship. Oscar winner Gooding earned a Razzie nom for his portrayal while the critics pounded the film for it's sappy cornball approach to story telling and Gooding's exaggeration of his character. Nonetheless, the film earned respectable marks from the paying public who were touched by the heartwarming tale of a different kind of relationship. For sentimentalists only. (B)