Movie review: ‘Concussion’ starring Will Smith

Concussion is a football movie that’s not about football, at least not in the way other sports films are.

This biopic of an obscure Pittsburgh doctor who made the first link between head trauma sustained during play and subsequent long-term damage cares little about the big game and more about what happens to the players long after the cheering has stopped.

But good intentions don’t necessarily lead to good moviemaking. Efficiently made but far less powerful than it might have been, Concussion packs all the punch of a greeting card.

A very good Will Smith is Nigerian immigrant Dr. Bennet Omalu, a forensic neuropathologist who knows nothing about football but starts to sound an alarm after examining the body of local gridiron hero Mike Webster (David Morse). It becomes his crusade, perhaps even to the point of putting himself in physical danger, as the NFL forcefully pushes back and tries to discredit him.

But there’s little sense of real danger or drama. Omalu has a love interest, a Kenyan immigrant, Prema (an underused Gugu Mbatha-Raw), but she has little to do but offer words of encouragement for Omalu.

And so it goes as the movie, directed by Peter Landesman (Parkland), never catches fire.

While the discussion it has kicked up is worthwhile and Omalu deserves all the credit he can get, a Google search on his life and struggles may prove more entertaining.

This story was originally published December 21, 2015 at 4:01 PM with the headline "Movie review: ‘Concussion’ starring Will Smith."