Draft Day

Here is a movie that doesn't do anything wrong, while at the same time, not really doing anything all that great.  Draft Day is completely watchable, but just as easy to forget when it's done.  Even as I sit here writing this sentence, I can feel the film fading from my mind.  But, for you, dear reader, I will do my best to drum up some thoughts for the sake of this review.

The movie's obvious inspiration is 2011's Moneyball, which worked because it was a real life drama that was in love with the details of what goes on behind the scenes in baseball.  Draft Day is not based on a true story, and at times feels like a nearly two hour advertisement for the NFL.  Kevin Costner stars as Sonny Weaver, Jr, the general manager of the Cleveland Browns.  As the clock ticks down the final hours before Draft Day, when the teams pick the college hopefuls to play on their team, Sonny finds himself torn both in his private life and on the job.  Both of these elements are supposed to fuel the drama behind the film, but they lack conviction, and the actors hold no chemistry.

Let's take this for an example - Sonny's personal life is in turmoil, because he has a much younger co-worker and girlfriend named Ali (Jennifer Garner), who tells him early in the film that she is pregnant.  Not only does this revelation hold little dramatic weight during the course of the film (Their relationship is supposed to be a secret, but supposedly everyone who works with Sonny knows about it.), but Costner and Garner just hold absolutely no romantic chemistry whatsoever.  When they're alone, they never once come across as a couple.  They look like two actors reciting lines back and forth to each other, nothing more.  Both actors can be very likable, and have been in other roles, but here, I don't know.  We just don't see the spark of chemistry we expect whenever they're on screen together.

Sonny's relationships on the job don't hold much dramatic weight either.  He's constantly at odds with the team's outspoken coach (Denis Leary), who clearly disagrees with Sonny's way of picking players, and wants to do his own thing.  There is also the team's millionaire owner (Frank Langella), who is pushing Sonny into his own agenda.  These relationships with both men are just barely touched on.  We never know what they truly think about Sonny, or what he thinks about them in turn.  We never get a true sense of a working relationship between these guys, which kind of kills the realism of the movie.  I know it's a work of fiction, but the filmmakers obviously intended this to be a behind the scenes look at what goes on when it's time for teams to pick their players.  With this approach, it often feels like the movie is just barely scratching the surface.

The only moment when Draft Day comes alive is in its final half hour, when Sonny has to make some last minute deals in order to get what he wants, and to make everyone on the team happy.  Here, finally, we feel like the movie knows what it's talking about, and is actually showing us the process.  Oh, I have no doubt that this is much more contrived than what actually happens, but it still feels more honest than the rest of the movie.  It's here where the movie finally starts to build some tension, and we actually get involved and behind Sonny.  If only this had happened a lot sooner.  As it stands, it's enough to end the film on a relative high, but not enough to save everything that came before it.  We would need to be more invested in these characters in order for that to happen.

The film's director is Ivan Reitman, who was known back in the 80s for his big budget comedies like the Ghostbusters films.  Maybe a smaller, more personal film like this was not a good match for him.  He uses a lot of distracting gimmicks, like non-stop split screen, and fancy computer graphics displaying the team names when we're in their respective cities.  It feels like a lot of unnecessary flash for a film that should have had a stronger human element in order to work.

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