Functional melodrama

Rating: 6/10 (1 September 2014)

It's 1976 in Anderson, South Carolina. Harold Jones (Ed Harris) is the high school football coach. His wife Linda (Debra Winger) thinks he's not paying enough attention to their daughter (Sarah Drew). James 'Radio' (Cuba Gooding Jr.) is a mentally handicapped man who pushes a shopping cart around town. After taking one of the team's football, the star ballplayer and his friends tie him up and terrorize him. Coach takes Radio under his wing. It's not always easy as the team doesn't live up to expectations.
There are different ways to criticize Cuba's performance. It could be seen as a showy thing meant for the awards season. Cuba could be dismissed as unable to do more with the character. I think he does a fine job. It's definitely not award winning but at least he's pushing his acting range.
The major problem for me is the concentration on the coach and Radio. It needs to have a POV from someone else. There are a couple of possibilities. Johnny Clay would be an interesting choice especially with his father Frank. He's set up for a redemption storyline. The side characters need more time. The story is too simplistic when there is easy drama underneath the story. A more fleshed out story for the teenagers would be much more compelling. It shows when the daughter is able to pull the deepest emotions from the story.