(2001, Dir. John Gray)
In short: The outgoing, wisecracking, white Brian Piccolo and the shy, serious, African-American Gayle Sayes are forced to learn to live with one another as they play football for the Chicago Bears. Eventually they become friends, but Brian falls seriously ill with cancer. The main idea here is that it's important to make the most of what you've got--whether it's a bad roommate assignment, being a benchwarmer, or even such a serious thing as having cancer. Brian learns to make the best of his situations and it shows. The strength in this movie is in the acting and the writing, not in the production (it is, I learned, a made-for-TV movie). The characters are very well-developed in a very short time, and they go through very impressive arcs. The writing is good, and is truthful in a way that's necessary for telling an inspired-by-real-life story well. There are a lot of good parallels and motifs happening (I especially enjoyed the conversations between Joy and Linda). And this film is pretty effective emotionally. It sets out to make you cry, and it sure has the ability, but it lacks any kind of closure. 6.5/10 piñatas.
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AuthorEileen here, writing reviews for film class. Archives
April 2018
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