Concussion

Dir: Peter Landesman

2015

***

2015's Concussion tells the true story of Dr Bennet Omalu's discovery of a particular chronic traumatic encephalopathy (or CTE) in American Football players. Dr Bennet Omalu (played by Will Smith) was the on-call pathologist working at the Allegheny County, Pennsylvania coroner's office at the time when Football legend Mike Webster (played by David Morse) was brought in after being discovered dead in his pick-up-truck back in 2002. Dr. Omalu was so perplexed by Webster's condition that he dedicated a lot of time and his own money into researching it further, naive of how the all powerful NFL would react. Peter Landesman's film documents this fascinating scientific breakthrough by exploring the process of authentication when publishing a scientific paper, while also highlighting the corruption of large corporate organisations. It is essentially a battle of science vs. Football and no matter who wins, there are always going to be some unhappy people, and more than likely, they will be powerful and rich. As well as scientific research and good old fashioned corruption, what the story really highlights is the public's acceptance that ignorance is bliss. Tell people whatever you want, just don't take their sport away from them. The level of denial is staggering and this is told brilliantly through the eyes of Dr. Omalu, a Nigerian who worked hard and crossed the Atlantic in search of the American dream and a better life. What I didn't like however was the melodramatic way the story is told. Dr. Omalu met his future wife around the same time as the film is set but their romance takes up way too much of the film and it really isn't relevant to the case in point. The film forces the notion that Dr. Omalu is a kind and thoughtful man to the point that you wonder if it is true, because why else are they pushing it so much? It seems to pander to the sort of people who would never be interested in the first place. I'm not suggesting for one moment that a film shouldn't challenge anyone but backing up the scientific message with the bombardment of 'but he believes in god too' became tiresome and rather annoying. It is an interesting and intelligent story but it isn't so challenging an idea that it needed to be spoon-fed. There is an awful lot of looking in mirrors and out of windows for my liking. Will Smith's performance is good and particularly strong in places but his accent could have done with a lot more work. Albert Brooks steals the show as Dr. Omalu's mentor, Dr. Cyril Wecht who was directly bribed by the FBI as a way of targeting Omalu's work. Alec Baldwin, David Morse and Gugu Mbatha-Raw give great support, although Mbatha-Raw is given a fairly bad script to work with. It's a fascinating story, it has just been manhandled, sugar-coated and simplified a little too much for it to be the truly great film it should have been.