Wick's Review

Summary - Great 4.0

Mike Webster was a hero of mine, at a time when heroes were very, very influential in a young man’s life. Iron Mike Webster snapped the ball to Terry Bradshaw in four Super Bowls, all of which the Steelers won – my Steelers. He famously wore short-sleeves and no arm-pads to not get grabbed by defensive linemen and linebackers, who often outweighed him by fifty pounds. Webster – number 52 – regularly pulled round end from the center position – an extraordinary act of athleticism – to lead Franco Harris on bounding runs through the killer defenses of the Cowboys, Raiders and Vikings. He is considered by some to be the greatest center in NFL history. He’s certainly one of the greatest linemen of all time.

Concussion tells what happened to him after professional football. His mind melted and he died a sad, tragic death at age 50. Fellow NFL studs Andre Waters, Terry Long and Dave Duerson came to similar ends. Their stories also get told in this super important movie. Super important? Super Bowl important.

Concussion mostly tells the story of Dr. Bennet Omalu, an absurdly smart and degreed man who happens to be a Nigerian immigrant to the United States. A character that perfectly unexpected deserves to be played by a moviestar of the utmost magnitude. Enter Will Smith. His “Tell the truth!!” has entered the cinematic football lexicon, joining “Show me the money!” as an iconic statement about NFL reality.

Will Concussion change the deeply American love for football? It’s dimmed mine by leavening it with the grim knowledge that humans aren’t designed to knock heads. The fact that it delivers this inconvenient truth in an engaging, smart and entertaining way makes it a pick-six of a movie – surprising and decisive.

Acting - Great 4.0

Will Smith delivers a benchmark performance as real-life Dr. Bennet Omalu, the Nigerian immigrant who discovered the brain disease that’s killed so many football players. Smith charmingly and persuasively captures Omalu’s formality, brilliance and rectitude, not to mention his Nigerian accent. This is simply one of the best performances of the year and worthy of Best Actor nominations.

David Morse deserves a golden statue for his brilliantly touching performance as an addled Mike Webster. Morse melts into the character, a man unmoored and confused during his final sad years. Morse first appears on screen delivering Webster’s Hall of Fame induction speech, and it’s not even clear that we’re seeing an actor. But acting it is, sensitive and sophisticated acting. Bravo!

Strong Supporting Cast

• Alec Baldwin is ideally cast as Steelers’ team doctor Dr. Julian Bailes.
• Albert Brooks brings his weary cynicism as high profile forensic pathologist Dr. Cyril Hecht, who first became famous for his criticism of the Warren Commission’s findings concerning the assassination of John F. Kennedy, per Wikipedia.
• Gugu Mbatha-Raw as Prema Mutiso, Dr. Amalu’s friend, girlfriend and ultimately his wife. The lovely Gugu first drew my attention in Larry Crowne. She deserves more and bigger roles.
• Arliss Howard as prominent neurosurgeon Dr. Joseph Maroon.
• Mike O’Malley as a coroner whose emotional attachment to football gets in the way of seeing the truth about head trauma.
• Eddie Marsan as the NFL’s expert Dr. Steven DeKosky
• Hill Harper as an NFL minion
• Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje as NFL legend and CTE victim Dave Duerson: Bleacher Report tells Duerson‘s story in Death, Hollywood and the Duersons’ Complicated Relationship with Football.
• Richard T. Jones as Eagles legend and CTE victim Andre Waters
• Luke Wilson cameos as NFL commissioner Roger Goodall
• Matthew Willig, a former NFL tackle, plays CTE victim Justin Strzelczyk

Film - Great 4.0

Concussion is a charming film, not just a serious and important one. That charm largely comes from the impish nature of Dr. Bennet Amalu and the courtship between him and his wife.

Writer-director Peter Landesman is a left-wing guy, prone to faulty left-wing agitprop, so his treatment of the NFL has a whiff of revenge served cold. Yet he does a great job turning this important and substantially true story into an entertaining and compelling film.

Edge - Risqué 2.0

Reality - Glib 1.3

The movie apparently takes several liberties with various details of how its stories actually went down. Nonetheless, the main points are apparently true: Dr. Amalu, a medical examiner in the Pittsburgh coroner’s office, really did dissect Mike Webster’s brain and then used his medical brilliance to discover CTE. Webster’s CTE-triggered death was followed by the others: Andre Waters, Terry Long, etc.

Concussion’s key insight is that the human brain isn’t connected to the skull, tragically. It floats inside, vulnerable to bruising when the head gets knocked. In short, humans aren’t made to knock heads. Truth.

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