Review: Concussion

Clear in its intentions but confused in its execution, Concussion attempts to marry a whistleblower's exposé of a multi-billion dollar organisation and an immigrant love story and ends up shortchanging both sides. A strong central performance by Will Smith and an equally effective supporting turn from Alec Baldwin help the film some of its most complex beats, but writer-director Peter Landesman's handling proves too simplistic, heavy-handed and nakedly manipulative to carry this cautionary tale over the line.

The film's opening moments signpost Landesman's allergy to shading. Former Pittsburgh Steelers player Mike Webster (David Morse) addresses a room of fans, remembering his glory days when it was all about finishing the game and winning. Next time the local legend is seen, he is living out of his car, ignoring all contact from his concerned family and friends, and urging former team physician Dr. Julian Bailes (Baldwin) to fix him before ultimately tasering himself to death. Meanwhile, Dr. Bennet Omalu (Smith) is introduced listing his seemingly endless collection of advanced degrees and certifications as he prepares to give courtroom testimony that will eventually prove the defendant to be innocent. Currently working in a Pittsburgh coroner's office where his penchant for talking to the corpses as if they were living patients, thoughtfulness in his reporting, and status as a Nigerian immigrant have marked him as an outsider to most of his colleagues save for his exasperated but supportive boss, Cyril Wecht (Albert Brooks).

When Webster's body turns up in the morgue for Omalu's dissection, one thing is certain: Omalu will discover something amiss. After all, how is it that a relatively healthy man descended so rapidly into madness without some sign of abnormality in the brain? Omalu is determined to find out even it means paying for the tests out of his own pocket. What he uncovers is a degree of neurological deterioration he posits is caused by years and years worth of head-on collisions over the course of Webster's pro-football career. The human brain does not have the capacity to absorb such force without damage, Omalu relates. Webster experienced over 70,000 blows to his head, the effects of which resulted in his mind destroying itself from within.

Unsurprisingly, his published research is refuted by the NFL, who are not about to let some African voodoo doctor destroy not only America's favourite game but also its most profitable empire. They do everything they can to discredit and dissuade Omalu, but more and more football players keep turning up dead. More disturbing than the game footage of players crashing into one another are scenes of former players like Justin Strzelczyk (Matthew Willig) and Dave Duerson (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje) struggling to comprehend what is happening to them. The former stumbles around his home, clutching at his wife, crying at her that the voices in his head are telling him to kill her. Even if the NFL weren't so emphatically designated as the Big Bad, it is scenes like this that go a long way in condemning their malfeasance and injecting humanism into the film.

Not that Concussion is lacking in humanism, but it tends to be misplaced. The film may have been more resonant if more of a spotlight had been placed on the eroding conditions of Webster, Strzelczyk or Duerson, especially as the roles are played by very fine actors. Instead, the focus is on Omalu and his personal life with fellow immigrant, Prema (Gugu Mbatha-Raw). There is nothing inherently wrong with this, particularly since Mbatha-Raw is always a welcome presence, but it detracts from the film's main objective.

There is also something puzzling in the way Omalu is criticised for threatening the country's national pastime and then extolled for exemplifying what it is to be an American when he is finally allowed to speak. It feels both hypocritical and too rah-rah; one half-expects the ghost of Knute Rockne to encourage him to "Win just one for the Gipper."

Concussion

Directed by: Peter Landesman

Written by: Peter Landesman; based in part on the GQ article "Brain Game" by Jeanne Marie Laskas

Starring: Will Smith, Alec Baldwin, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Albert Brooks, David Morse, Arliss Howard, Mike O'Malley, Eddie Marsan, Stephen Moyer, Matthew Willig, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Paul Reiser, Hill Harper, Richard T. Jones, Luke Wilson