Melodrama

Rating: 5/10 (29 September 2012)

The story started off pretty good but got more and more unbelievable to the point of being ridiculous at the end. The acting and dialog were good overall, especially Nick Nolte. But the melodrama got so thick at the end I could barely stand it. It also started to get really tiresome listening to Tommy grunt and snarl at everyone all hunched over like a cave man. And, what a surprise, he turns out to be a war hero who never took credit for saving someone's life so the whole crowd is cheering for him. That by itself, okay; but added to all the other unbelievable stuff; no. If the writers had consulted a group of high school boys, they probably would have recommended that. Then how the fight turned out in the end: could it have even been attempted to make it more dramatic and moving? What else could have been thrown in there to aim for a higher crescendo to make it by far the very most dramatic sports movie of all time--since that seems to have been what they were aiming for? Maybe the other guy's daughter could have been taken hostage and he has to win to save her life, but at the same time Tommy actually had organ damage and would die if he was hit again. Sound pretty good? I mean, that would be really dramatic. It is possible to overdo something so that it just becomes dumb, and despite the good elements of this film, it could not have been much more overdone in the end.