Not quite as uplifting and inspiring as it could have been

Rating: 7/10 (2 April 2008)

Here we have yet another entry in the "inspiring sports movie" genre. You know the type...Rocky and Rudy and Hoosiers and so on. The plucky, overmatched underdogs whose story of course leads to that big uplifting moment at the end which will make you cheer or cry or both. But We Are Marshall is a little bit different than those other films. Here the story is not just about overachieving, not just about competing with and maybe even beating an opponent who is simply much better than you. This is a story about overcoming so much more, about facing unspeakable tragedy and finding the strength and will to carry on. Why is it then that when this film's inevitable "big moment" comes you may well sense that you found yourself more inspired by, say, the rather mundane by comparison story of Rudy with some not particularly talented kid getting to play for a few seconds in a football game? We Are Marshall, with the story it has to tell, should clearly be the most uplifting and inspiring film of this particular genre. But it's not. It's a good movie, a very good one at times. But it never quite lives up to the potential you sense the story had.
The film begins in November 1970 with the Marshall University football team flying home from a game. However the team will never make it home as their chartered plane crashes just short of the airport in Huntington, West Virginia. In an instant the entire Marshall football program has essentially been wiped out. But of course in the immediate aftermath of the crash nobody is really concerned with football. The entire Huntington/Marshall community is in mourning. So many lives lost and not just the team either, as many of Huntington's most prominent citizens, Marshall supporters all, were on the plane as well. The fact that a number of children were left orphaned, losing both parents in the crash, speaks to the depth of the tragedy. In the face of a tragedy like this how could football really be important? In fact the first inclination of Marshall administrators is to discontinue the football program. But the following season the Marshall University football team would in fact take the field. This movie tells the story of how new coach Jack Lengyel essentially rebuilt the program from scratch, got a team out on the field and helped to, at least in some small way, allow this shattered community to heal.
It's obviously a very captivating story. So why does the movie not quite hit the heights you sense it should? The biggest problem is the movie's pace. Fifteen to twenty minutes easily could have been cut here to help the movie move along. As it is the movie struggles to build the momentum so important in leading to that big payoff at the end. Some characters seem superfluous, most notably that of the girlfriend of one of the dead players, as portrayed by Kate Mara. There's nothing wrong with Mara's performance, it's just that her character seems totally unnecessary and really adds nothing to the film. Any time spent with her character is time which could have been better spent elsewhere or better yet cut out of the film altogether. In the central role of the new coach Matthew McConaughey gives what is at times a frustrating performance. All the offbeat quirks and mannerisms wear thin after a while. Perhaps he was trying too hard to imitate the real Coach Lengyel, but whatever McConaughey was trying to do he never quite manages to convince. And since his character is at the very heart of the story that is a rather glaring problem with the movie. But despite the problems the movie may have it's still well worth seeing. You'll be both inspired and entertained. You just may get the sense you should have been a little bit more inspired and entertained than you actually are.