With the NFL season opening this past weekend, the timing is right for the release of Disney's feel good football film, "Invincible." The story follows the improbable true-life journey of Vince Papale, (Mark Wahlberg, "Four Brothers"), a bartender that made the 1976 Philadelphia Eagles.
Every now and then, a sports film transcends genres and gets recognized as simply an amazing movie. The Disney Corporation has put out some great sports movies in the past - immediately "Cool Runnings" and "Remember the Titans" come to mind. However, "Invincible" is not in the same class.
The film is set in Philadelphia during the slow economic times of the 1970s. Philadelphia normally lives and dies with its sports teams, but the fans from the "City of Brotherly Love" don't have much to look forward to, as the Eagles haven't had a winning season in a decade.
That is until Dick Vermeil (Greg Kinnear, "Little Miss Sunshine") takes over as head coach. As a tool to motivate his fans, he offers an open tryout. Papale is the only player invited to training camp. From there on in, the film follows his struggles in life and in his quest to play professional football.
As usual, Disney layers the film with several sub-plots, one of which shows Papale's wife leaving him after he loses his job as a teacher. Papale eventually falls for the young Janet Cantwell, a fellow bartender, and an avid New York Giants fan.
With the romantic sub-story in place, the filmmakers begin to portray Papale's strained relationship with his father and how playing football brings them closer after many tough and distant years.
However, the overriding theme of the movie is hope. Papale keeps faith that he might fulfill a dream, and the Philadelphia citizens see him and his unlikely story as a sign that they too might have hope in both their football team and their lives.
The film combines acting with some great football action scenes, recreating the plays of the Eagles 1976 season in near replica form. The directors used real football players to stage the action and utilized blueprints from film to be as exact as possible. The true hits were even felt by Whalberg, who took a few nasty shots in the filming process.
The main problem with the movie is that there just isn't enough to this story to be a full-length feature. It must have been a hard task to try and figure out how to make a movie based on a man whose career is highlighted by one big play.
The directors addressed this issue by extending the game scenes involving Papale to a painstakingly long degree. The amount of slow motion scenes in the movie is unparalleled to any in recent memory, and gives the feeling of the movie dragging out. With the ending coming so abruptly there is a bit of an empty feeling left with the viewer, especially after such an exciting turn of events against the Giants.
Essentially, the film is a great sports history lesson, with some really good action scenes. However, all the filler clouds the real story and makes the football scenes too few and far between. Even with Marky Mark as the movie's star, it doesn't live up to the hype.
