We went with a friend to see Kevin Costner's latest sports-themed movie "Draft Day," which as you might expect is about a running countdown to one of the biggest events in sports, the NFL college player draft.
Costner is the conflicted general manager for a once-proud Cleveland Browns organization on hard times. Armed with the 7th pick in the draft after a season dashed by an injury to the star quarterback, he proceeds to make a series of distressing football and personal decisions fueled no doubt by the recent death of his father who had been a beloved Browns coach, and by the accidental pregnancy of his much-younger executive (Jennifer Garner) before making a desperate move toward redemption at the end.
Along the way there's the comically awkward office intern, an owner obsessed with making a "splash," a #1 quarterback with no flaws (or are there?), a #7 pick prospect with flaws (or are there?), a widowed mother applying pressure, a mother-to-be urging him to do the right thing, and a passionate quarterback determined to redeem his lost season.
I was a little distracted by gimmicks, like a broad smattering of cameos by the NFL commissioner and ex-players, the re-telling of some moments already well-known to NFL fans as if for the first time (like the Montana-Bengals Super Bowl), and heavy reliance on sliding-split-screen camerawork to put window dressing on the action. However, Dena liked the camerawork and it does a decent job of appealing jointly to the casual NFL fan and the die-hard.
On the whole I thought the plot was original enough to be worth a watch, even for a date night as long as your date's not completely sports-averse. There's something here for the fan who enjoys the drama of draft day as well as the fan with a heart for relationship and family struggles. You don't have to see it in the theater but it is worthy of the Costner shelf of memorable films.
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