There was a weird and wonderful symmetry last night watching Will Smith talk about his starring role as Dr Bennet Omalu in Concussion in front of the real man and thinking of the character we'd just seen onscreen. It was not the easy symmetry of mimicry, but of spirit. Both men are legends of their respective fields, if you will, and that's the last time we'll compare forensic pathology and movie stardom! More curiously neither man seemed willing to admit that the night's festivities were about him. Will Smith was especially humble about his performance and starstruck by the real man, admitting after Dr Omalu burst out laughing during the Q&A that followed the premiere, that he loved that laugh but couldn't manage to perfect it for the movie. Dr Omalu, in the movie and on stage kept saying that the story wasn't about him but about the science. The writer/director Peter Landisman called the movie version of Omalu a "triangulation" of the two men which is the best description possible of what we were watching on stage, the movie still fresh in the mind.
Concussion centers on Omalu's discovery of CTE, a brain disease brought on by repeated concussive head trauma, and the attempts of the NFL to cover up the physical damage on their players. A string of high profile suicides finally broke down the NFL's attempts at denial and debunking of Omalu's claims. [More...]
Will Smith and the back of Gugu Mbatha-Raw's head... (sigh)
The human brain, as you may or may not know (I did not) floats in a liquid and doesn't touch the skull. Humans don't have any built in shock absorbers for the brain like some animals do (head-butting rams for example). It turns out we aren't meant to slam our heads together while holding pigskins. Whod'a thunk it?!
While the movie offers Will Smith some solid film-carrying material, his bemused confidence in his overeducation (six degrees!) in particular is a delight, it plays somewhat like a perfunctory procedural as he investigates and runs test on dead athlete's brains. Initially the star's relationship to a young Kenyan he's helping transition into American life (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) offers promising material for something beautiful to grab on to inbetween sports-infused arguments and medical procedures but sadly the tremendously talented Mbatha-Raw (Beyond the Lights) has no way around the stock-like confines of the role. You know the kind: she's the girlfriend / wife who exists solely to prop up her put-upon man (sometimes with hugs and kisses, other times with speeches to fortify his courage!) and is intended to humanize and soften him. Only this case, the leading man needs no humanizing or softening since the man has a colorful engaging personality and is generous and kind and because Will Smith can carry a movie with as much grace as star players can fly through the air in slo-mo (so much football slomo!) to avoid being tackled. As utterly depressing as it is to say, the film may have been more successful at concussive dramatic impact (sorry) had it utterly jettisoned its sole female character of note.
In the end Concussion is a solid commercial medical/sports drama filled with real albeit too easy drama that should please fans of Will Smith (they are legion as you know) but never transcends its limitations. The scenes involving football players going mad are the weak spots and never wholly convincing, like reenactments in a questional docudrama. Will Smith, though, is in fine form and livening up the film from the sidelines are the always amusing Albert Brooks as Omalu's boss and Alec Baldwin as a concerned former NFL doctor willing but unhappy to be helping Omalu open the NFL's eyes and stop their lies.
Alec Baldwin, Will Smith, and Albert Brooks in "Concussion"
Grade: C+
Oscar Chances: Will Smith could have an outside dark horse shot if the film is a massive hit and people are eager to have him back in the fold. Particularly if he and Omalu and Albert Brooks tour together as they're quite entertaining in tandem. (At one point during the alternately sober and hilarious Q&A, Albert Brooks asked Dr Omalu to confirm if Dr Ben Carson was indeed insane!)