It's a puppet show! Watch the movie pull your strings!

Rating: 3/10 (12 April 2015)

"Radio" may be based on a truthful, inspiring story but that only goes so far. It just doesn't seem to me like this was the kind of story that ultimately lends itself to a movie; or if it does this was not the way to do it. It's the story of James Robert "Radio" Kennedy (played by Cuba Gooding Jr.), a mentally disable young man who is fascinated by radios and football and is taken under the wing of the local football team's coach (Ed Harris as Coach Jones).
What I really disliked about this movie was that the people here don't feel like people. Now I know that this film is based on true events and all, but it's like the details have been fudged left and right in order to make the film universally appealing. In trying to make it so soft and cuddly, it appeals to no one but the most undiscriminating audience that loves anything football-related. The titular character feels like a Hollywood stereotype of a mentally challenged man: he can do no wrong, is always sweet, is loved by everyone (well, except for the one dimensional villain) and has no personality whatsoever. When he is included in the behind-the-scenes of the school football team he feels more like a pet or a mascot than a real person and the film never really focuses on him, following Ed Harris' character Coach Jones instead of going about the more challenging task of showing us what this town really saw in James Robert Kennedy and giving him a real personality with flaws and all. There is also something off-putting about the fact that the people in the town very rarely call him by his actual name, instead calling him by his given nickname of "Radio" and that we never see any portrayal of the man's brother in the film, almost as if he refused to be included.
Overall it does pull at your heartstrings and will likely get some sensitive audiences emotionally involved but the plot is the same one you have seen before: the misunderstood misfit shows the rest of the world that it's important to be more caring and understanding. Oh, if we could just set aside our differences and see those poor outcasts for what they really are: beautiful people that just seem weird on the outside. well then we could all learn a bit from them and become more beautiful and caring human beings ourselves. This recycled plot combined with the stock villain and the forced, emotionally manipulative story (manipulative to the point where some characters turn into cartoonish villains or saints whenever convenient) that there isn't much to recommend here except for some good performances. (On DVD, November 1, 2012)