The context of this movie is unparalleled. It’s a film about a scandal free, beloved baseball star who had died only a year before of a rare disease. They got actual teammates to appear in it, got a movie star to play him, assembled a crew of top behind the camera people to make it, and cleaned up on Oscar nomination morning. Oh, and the film was a hit. I can’t even think of a modern parallel. Like, imagine if last year they made a Kobe Bryant movie starring Will Smith off an Aaron Sorkin script, directed by Steven Spielberg in full sentimental mode and that film got a dozen nominations and made $100,000,000 at the box office. Granted, Bryant had retired due to age, not disease, died in a freak accident, and had plenty of scandal tied to his name. The Lou Gehrig story is too perfect and the idea of Hollywood’s best reacting that quickly to his death is both impossible and gauche in modern times. And I haven’t even gotten to the speech. Gehrig’s goodbye speech at Yankee Stadium is the kind of thing a screenwriter would be told is too sentimental to work.
So, I accept that this is a “You had to be there” movie. That said, this movie isn’t very good. Gary Cooper is distractingly old. He was born before Lou Gehrig and was supposed to play Gehrig as far back as college. Cooper isn’t the kind of star who can pull off younger the way that even Jimmy Stewart (It’s a Wonderful Life) can. There’s also a reason they don’t make biographical films this quickly. The hagiography of this film is over the top. There is shockingly little introspection in this movie. Perhaps Gehrig really was a saint, but that’s pretty boring. I’m not exactly cynical about this movie. The ending is moving and I do kind of like how this is just a nice movie. People don’t make movies this nice anymore. It is dull though. I don’t know how to square that. In hindsight though, this looks like one of those Oscars movies we get every year that even a year later we wonder why that one got so much love at the time*.
*Granted, that’s probably most of the Best Picture nominees, but I’m talking about the ones like The Revenant. Why was that a nomination leader and not a couple noms and the win for Leo?
Verdict: Weakly Don’t Recommend
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