Nobody
wants to draft the next Ryan Leaf or JaMarcus Russell, but they often look like
sure things at the time. Of course, nobody ever understood the Knicks’ Frédéric
Weis debacle, especially when Artest was still available. Granted, that is a
basketball digression, from 1999, but the point is we still are not ready to
forgive and forget. The stakes are consequently high for Cleveland’s GM when he
makes a costly trade for the number one pick. He had better choose wisely, but
the clock is ticking throughout Ivan Reitman’s Draft Day (trailer
here), which
opens today pretty much everywhere.
Sonny
Weaver basically has one season left to turn things around. He largely
inherited the current team, but he did little to endear himself to fans when he
fired their legendary head coach, who also happened to be his father, now
deceased. With the owner pressuring him to make a big move, he reluctantly agrees
to a deal, trading away their next three years of first round drafts for the
upcoming number one pick. (Ironically, it is your 2014 Super Bowl champion
Seattle Seahawks who have that coveted #1 spot.)
Weaver
quickly develops buyer’s remorse, but the trade is done. Everyone assumes he
will opt for the presumptive number pick, Bo Callahan, the Heisman winning
quarterback from Wisconsin. His owner is delighted with the prospects of a
marquee player like Callahan, but Weaver cannot shake the Leafy vibe he gets
from him. Further complicating matters, Weaver’s front office colleague and not
so secret lover has just informed him she is pregnant.
You
really have to hand it to Kevin Costner. After some pretty lean years, he has
clawed his way back to leading man status in major Hollywood releases. Going back
to the sports well obviously makes sense in theory and it works ably enough
again in practice. Since it is all about wheeling and dealing, Draft Day is bound to be compared to Moneyball and not unfairly so. The truth
is there is something oddly cinematic about watching the respective GMs’ hard
bargaining, firing off lines like: “that offer already expired, it’s a
different world than it was thirty seconds ago.”
Frankly,
the only sports action we see are the teams’ research tapes and there are no
surprises there, because Weaver will explicitly tell them to show the footage
of Callahan getting sacked. Still, there is something very sporting about Draft Day’s persistent faith in next season.
Without
question, Costner is the film’s lynchpin and he still has what it takes. He
convincingly gives Weaver darker shades than his Bull Durham, Field of Dreams, and Tin Cup characters, but he remains undeniably charismatic. While
they do not burn down the joint with their passion, he and Jennifer Garner
develop some relatively likable and believable romantic chemistry together.
Denis Leary and Frank Langella both do their shtick as the Browns’ head coach
and owner, respectively, but it is the latter veteran thesp who really gives
the film some sly zip. Football fanatics will also dig the scores of real life
NFL cameos, mostly notably including Jim Brown (as far as old school cineastes
are concerned).
