On DVD and BLU RAY - "42" - (2013) - I'm no fan of the game of baseball. That said, I recognize and appreciate the importance of Jackie Robinson's landmark accomplishment of breaking the color barrier in Major League Baseball during a highly volatile, racially charged period of U.S. history. 42 takes an extremely interesting individual, a fantastic career and a helluva life and promptly condenses it with a schmaltzy, 128 minute docudrama that spends the majority of it's time reminding everyone, often quite ham-fistedly, just how bad racism was in 1947. I have very little tolerance for the timid, formulaic but efficient approach that filmmakers so often employ with so many "based on a true story" family-oriented films- this is a movie that falls just passed good, though nowhere near very good or outstanding because of painfully obvious, manipulative fingerprints and an anemic approach to the finer details that define great biopics. This is the kind of stuff that may win over impressionable children and those who watch only a handful of films a year, but it rarely pans out as high entertainment for myself.
Chadwick Boseman (a talent new to myself) is fine as Jackie Robinson while Harrison Ford (refreshingly acting in an age-appropriate role) is great as then Brooklyn Dodgers team executive "Branch Rickey". Nicole Beharie is solid as Jackie's wife, Rachel, but every other character in the film is paper-thin and pulled from a dusty stockroom. It was rather disappointing to see so little time spent on Christopher Meloni's (Law & Order: Special Victims Unit) *"Leo Durocher"- the controversial Dodgers manager and his affair with married actress Laraine Day is only briefly touched upon here. Most will probably remember Alan Tudyk's (Serenity) particularly nasty turn as Phillies Manager, "Ben Chapman".
I found it a little strange that this narrative, spent covering the 1947 season, decides to forgo playing up the fact that the Dodgers went on to the World Series that year and lost to the Yankees in 7 games- this is only revealed during a text-based epilogue. Kind of a big deal to be treated in such a passive, inconsequential manner...
Writer/Director Brian Helgeland is a highly capable screenwriter, with credits for films like L.A. Confidential, Mystic River and Man On Fire (2004) under his belt. Pulling double duty here (as writer and Director), I felt he simply wasn't seasoned enough to pull the right emotional strings. 42 is aesthetically pleasing and digestible enough, though rather forgettable in the realm of sports biopics- it's an account that feels as if a good half hour of quality exposition is missing. This particular narrative should have been edgier, more layered and a helluva lot more uplifting. Those who found more to like here than myself may want to check out 2000's Remember The Titans and 2008's The Express.
*Leo Durocher said, "Ya want a guy that comes to play. This guy didn't just come to play. He come to beat ya. He come to stuff the goddamn bat right up your ass."
7.0 out of 10
Director: Brian Helgeland
Starring: Chadwick Boseman, Harrison Ford, Nicole Beharie, Christopher Meloni, Lucas Black and Alan Tudyk
Running Time: 128 Minutes
MPAA Rating: Rated PG-13 for thematic elements including language
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