Directed and Written by : Peter Landesman
Starring : Will Smith, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Alec Baldwin, Albert Brooks, David Morse
Release Date : December 25, 2015
To put it bluntly, "Concussion" is an unremarkable movie. I'm not saying it's a bad film, but it's definitely not a great film by any means. It's just a very pedestrian movie that doesn't really do anything too cinematic, and plays out with the expected tropes of being an adaptation of a true story. Fortunately for the movie, it does have an interesting and important story to tell, which may even save someone's life.
This movie is telling the story of Dr. Bennet Omalu's discovery of Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE), which is a progressive degenerative disease that is caused by repeated trauma to the head. This then becomes a David vs Goliath story, when Dr. Omalu brings this up to the NFL, which is an organization that would rather just not believe in the truth about CTE. This is the main crux of the movie, and the primary reason to see it.
Will Smith does a good job playing Dr. Omalu, and it's as serviceable as expected. There are some side stories about the Doctor's personal life that I thought the movie didn't need to have bothered with, but it does admittedly make the character more sympathetic. He is a foreigner who really loves living in the USA, and this leads to a dramatic plot device of Dr. Omalu suddenly being persecuted because his scientific research could ruin one of America's favorite sports, football. One man vs a very powerful institution. Compelling stuff.
It's unfortunate that "Concussion" couldn't just be a better movie than it is, because it does deal with a subject matter that's too important to ignore.
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