A solid, above-average movie that you’ll want to catch at home since most people haven’t watched it at the theater, although it’s not an outright flop either.
What Works: This is a nice middle-ground sports movie that deals with the deal-making instead of the play-making. It can’t touch Moneyball (the great baseball management movie) but it does a great job for a sports film without a single actual football game in it. Anyone remotely interested in the behind-the-scenes business side of sports should check it out, and Dennis Leary and Kevin Costner combust off each other nicely as the team coach and team manager (respectively) who don’t like each other very much. Plus, Frank Langella is smooth as silk as the team’s moneyed owner and the always-likable Jennifer Garner shows why she’s the best bland actress around. [I know that sounds like a back-handed compliment, and is, but it’s sure better than being just a regular bland actress.]
What Doesn’t: A few of the extra-dramatic flavorings feel forced, particularly Ellen Burstyn as Costner’s pushy mother and her insistence of spreading his late father’s ashes on the field. Oh yeah, and his late father was the former coach of the team…da-da-dum! Trumped up touches like that strain Draft Day’s authenticity, one of the best things the film has going for it.
What I Would Have Done Differently: Not much, but maybe sped up some of the dialogue (Moneyball flew because of Aaron Sorkin’s high-flying verbal gifts) and dialed down some of the Costner as everyman-midwestern-saint folksiness. Plus, the very, very end—-with the team taking the field to some bombastically cheesy song—-feels too much like an 80’s rock music video.