Draft Day

Hollywood's Mr. Baseball, aka Kevin Costner, walks off the diamond and onto the gridiron (or, more accurately, into pro football's corporate offices) in "Draft Day," Ivan Reitman's entertaining tribute to the wheeling-and-dealing that goes on behind the scenes at the NFL draft.

Costner plays the fictional Sonny Wheeler, Jr., son of the equally fictitious Sonny Wheeler, Sr., who has recently died and in whose shadow Sonny perpetually toils. You see, Wheeler, Sr. was a legend at the Cleveland Browns franchise, and, in his two years as general manager for the team, his son seems to be having a little trouble living up to the old man's reputation. To further complicate Sonny's life, his "down low" girlfriend, Ali (Jennifer Garner), who works as the lawyer responsible for making sure the team doesn't bust through the salary cap, has just announced that she is pregnant with the commitment-phobic Sonny's child. Amid all this personal turmoil, Sonny launches into full negotiator mode, making deals and forming alliances with other general managers in the league while working to assuage the concerns of the team's owner (Frank Langella), its coach (Dennis Leary), an assortment of high strung and disgruntled players (Tom Welling, Chadwick Boseman, Arian Foster) and even his own mother (Ellen Burstyn) who has views of her own that need to be taken into consideration before he can arrive at his final decision.

Although it probably helps to have some familiarity with how the draft pick works in order to fully appreciate some of the finer points of the narrative, writers Rajiv Joseph and Scott Rothman do a good job clarifying the big picture even for the less sports-oriented members of the audience. The movie proceeds at a breakneck pace as the clock ticks down to the moment of truth for Sonny. Will he accept the Seattle Seahawks' offer of the #1 draft pick, Bo Callahan (Josh Pence), in exchange for the Browns' #1 first-round draft picks for the next three years, or will he reject the offer in favor of some less stellar but still promising players? "Draft Day" is at its best when it's exploring the various and often contradictory interests - of players, coaches and owners, not to mention the millions at stake in salaries and corporate sponsorships - that those in Sonny's position must consider before rendering their final verdicts. Talk about pressure! The filmmakers establish a nice balance between the sports aspects of the tale and the personal moments between Sonny and Ali and Sonny and his mom, never allowing the latter to detract from the former. As a result, we care about the characters without losing our focus on the real reason we've come to this movie.

Reitman has come up with an interesting split-screen technique that helps to weave together a story that takes place over a wide range of geographical locales simultaneously. What might have been a mere gimmick in less capable hands becomes an indispensable narrative device here.

A few weeks back, while writing about "3 Days to Kill," I lamented that Costner desperately needed to find some quality material worthy of his talents to work with, and he seems to have found just that in "Draft Day." Costner has a core of quiet stillness that lends a genuine gravitas to his performances. Because he can appear both confident and insecure in the same moment, he makes us want to root for the character he's playing. He's also blessed with a super supporting cast that includes, in addition to all the aforementioned, Terry Crews, Rosanna Arquette, Sam Elliot, and Sean Combs.

"Draft Day" proves that not all the competitiveness and excitement of professional football takes place on the field.

First of all don't confuse this for a "Sports" movie.

It revolves around the NFL Draft, an annual event where the NFL managers are selecting players to join their teams.

It is a USA football thing, so if you are living in another continent, it is rather difficult to understand the rules and even more the point of this whole charade.

About the rules is something of a Poker game. At least as it looks in this picture. The manager of team A is on the phone with the manager of team B and they talk things like "I am giving you 2 of my first picks of the second round to give me your first pick for the next 2 years..." and so on.

Again, this is NOT about who wins a game or a trophy. This is merely about picking players whom you think they might be useful to your team. In the actual games they may proved to be bad choices, or injured or whatever, and despite being happy about your choices in the NFL draft, eventually to lose games and the season.

Now as movie "Draft Day" is carefully designed.

The direction and editing are trying to be "edgy" with unique split screen effects during the numerous phone-calls between the team managers. You can see for example Kevin Costner (who plays the lead role as an experienced yet unconventional manager) in a split screen walking into the other side of the frame where the manager of the other team is.

The music has a certain triumphant feeling without being to much in your face and the whole production is carefully designed.

I point that out because in this movie you have constantly the feeling that you are seeing great things taking place. Like every little decision is something that could change the world. But in reality all these "decisions" are something of a micromanagement. In the end and if you actually pay attention, what is happening and what the characters are talking about is totally uninteresting...

...and for the rest of the world, outside the US, confusing and pointless.

Surprisingly good football movie about Cleveland Browns general manager Kevin Costner on the day of the NFL draft. I say surprisingly because I wasn't expecting much. These sports dramas, particularly the football ones, often bore me. This one started off kind of like that and I was worried at first. But it picked up and I was soon wrapped up in the story. That's in large part due to the fine cast, especially Kevin Costner. You might ask why I watched this if I typically don't like sports dramas. Well the short answer is because Tom Welling from Smallville is in it. My friend was going to watch it for him so I thought "might as well." Turns out his role is pretty small. Anyway, it's a good movie. If you're not into football and you think that might keep you from enjoying this, don't worry. You don't really have to be a football fan to follow along with the plot. It's more about the behind-the-scenes business of football than the game itself.

Give Kevin Costner a good human-interest role and he can bring his unique star power making it both entertaining and compelling. As an adult I've grown less enamored with pro football and in fairness I'm from Alabama where college football is all it can be and pro isn't a factor. That said, it's the corporate money machine mentality that, in my humble opinion, soils the things I fondly remember of the ancient NFC/AFC of the sixties (where loyalty trumped money often for an entire career).

Well, this movie makes that big-business drama work as something much more human. Where the general managers struggle like desperate children for some kind of immediate better future. When even in the last hours those gilded picks are subject to human-error and wild scrambling per last minute decisions and deals. The kind of deals that come not just from statistics, but deeper beliefs. I'd say Draft Day brings this kind of tense drama to the screen with aplomb Is it a true representation? I'd say it doesn't matter because this is a movie and it's a good one.

With another season of the National Football League about to get underway, I thought it would be the perfect time to sit down and watch the Kevin Costner film, Draft Day. The plot isn't anything special here but, it does give a nice look at what might be going on behind the scenes during these drafts. This is my review of Draft Day.

The story here is fairly basic as it follows Cleveland Browns General Manager, Sonny Weaver Jr.(Kevin Costner) as he is testing the waters in the NFL(Nation Football League) draft. Some trades and exchanges happen throughout the lead up the their pick in the draft, and some twist and turns happen throughout the story. There is some boring downtime in the film but, with the run time being fairly small, it doesn't hurt the film all that much. This story was written by Scott Rothman and Rajiv Joseph. While this is the first writing credit for Rothman, Joseph has done some writing on a couple television shows like Nurse Jackie. Sure its a completely different story than what he is use to writing but, it seems both gentleman got the basics of the game locked down. For the sake of a good story some of the General Managers are made to look completely dumb, not to say all General Mangers in the NFL are smart. With a fairly basic story and nothing glaring in terms of this story, both Rothman and Joseph get a barely above average grade for their work on this film.

The film was directed by Ivan Reitman who is a legendary director known for the classic Ghostbuster films. While his efforts haven't been so successful in recent memory, this film is a nice addition to a solid overall filmography. With some high rise shots of major cities like Seattle, Buffalo, Cleveland, and others, Reitman brings an enjoyable atmosphere that is the NFL draft. With a different type of film like this it can be hard to know how it will turn out and received by the fans. Without legendary actor Kevin Costner, I really don't know how well the film would have been portrayed. With a lot of secondary actors popping up for smaller roles, there is a lot to focus on but, with the script being otherwise barely above average, and Reitman not bringing much in way of helping the script, it doesn't leave us with a great film by any means. With this film being different as it follows the events of the NFL, it can be a good film for fans like myself but, those who do not follow the NFL likely won't get much from this film. Reitman does a manageable job directing this film, and since the acting is nothing special, and minus some nice shots from Reitman, this was not one of his best outings as a director.

In closing, fans of the NFL will likely watch this film and mostly enjoy it. Those who really don't follow the league or the sport that much should likely just pass on this film for the time being. Maybe a rental or stream down the road is the best option but, there is no need to rush and watch this film. If you are an NFL fan, this might be a good watch as the new season starts this upcoming weekend.

7/10