It took former NFL players to start killing themselves at an alarming rate for something to finally be done about it. Suffering from the deleterious effects of CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy) due to repetitive, jarring physical contact, some have shot themselves in the chest rather than the head in order to allow scientists to autopsy and study their brains. The trickiest of diseases, CTE cannot be discovered until after a patient’s death. According to Concussion’s coda, 28 percent of former players will eventually suffer its brain trauma, often including schizophrenia and early-onset dementia.
Such an epidemic collides helmet-to-helmet with a football league long in denial. Peter Landesman’s new film tackles the subject from the vantage point of Bennett Omalu (Will Smith), a Nigerian-born Pittsburgh forensic pathologist who, the film claims, both discovered and gave a name to this terrible affliction. While that is apparently not a particularly accurate depiction of his contributions, Concussion suffers more from what it leaves out than what it adds to Dr. Omalu’s saga. The film’s NFL villains are more figureheads than characters. Outgoing commissioner Paul Tagliabue is barely onscreen, and his replacement, the controversial Roger Goodell (Luke Wilson) has little more than a cameo.
When Omalu begins to realize he is being vilified and falsely discredited for his findings, the NFL’s coverup is largely remote and offscreen. Not that his story is unmoving. Smith does a very good job in conveying the stinging emotional turmoil that occurs when a guy who doesn’t know the first thing about football suddenly finds himself a pariah. He wonders why kids ask him, “Why do you hate football?”
Albert Brooks helps save the day playing a mordantly mischievous boss of Omalu’s. “The NFL owns a day of the week,” he says. “The same day the church used to own.” Alec Baldwin pitches in as a former team doctor who has had enough and decides to help (and warn!) Omalu. Far too much screen time is spent on the moony, Hallmark relationship between Omalu and his wife (Gugu Mbatha Raw), a fellow African immigrant. Omalu nonetheless comes off as a principled, nice guy who actually believes in the American Dream. Early in the film it is touching that he actually talks gently to his corpses before cutting them open.
Former players march in and out of the film. One of them, former Steeler Hall-of-Famer Mike “Iron Mike” Webster (a very good David Morse) is so completely distraught from the effects of CTE he tases himself to dull the pain before suddenly dying one day while living in his pickup truck. Another, former Eagle safety Andre Waters, confronts former NFL player Dave Duerson on the street in Chicago. It seems Duerson is on the side of the league in downplaying the effects of concussions on players’ health. He offers Waters no compassion, telling him, “Take your bullshit science and go back to Africa.” SPOILER: Duerson ironically eventually develops mental trauma himself and, yep, commits suicide and leaves his brain to science.
Any Given Funday…..3.5 (out of 5) stars