Release Date: October 24, 2003
Starring: Cuba Gooding Jr., Ed Harris, Alfre Woodard, Sarah Drew, Riley Smith, Brent Sexton
Directed by: Michael Tollin
Written by: Mike Rich
Distributed by: Sony Pictures Entertainment
MPAA Rating: PG (mild language, thematic elements)
When a film like Radio has such good intentions, it almost feels cynical to say it’s not a good movie. But despite its heartwarming tale and strong lead actors, Michael Tollin’s based-on-a-true story film isn’t all that great. The film’s mediocrity comes from the bland style and stiff characters, two things that are never welcome in a real-life drama. If the tale of the mentally disabled James Robert “Radio” Kennedy and his relationship with the local high school football coach had not been as touching as it is, the PG-rated experience of watching Kennedy’s life through a camera lens would not be worth anyone’s time.
Radio is a combination of Remember the Titans and Forrest Gump, though its cookie-cutter story elements amount to about half of what each of those films were able to accomplish. Ed Harris plays one of the few non-static characters, Harold Jones, the football coach and athletic director at a South Carolina high school. The story is set in motion when he discovers that a young mentally retarded man (Cuba Gooding Jr.) has been chosen as the target of ridicule by the football team, and Jones saves him. From then on, he takes it upon himself to make the simple-minded man, soon to be nicknamed “Radio,” feel welcome around the high school.
Coach Jones sees to it that his team accepts Radio and everyone soon befriends him, except for the football-crazy locals who are weary that the Kennedy is distracting their beloved team and its coach from focusing on winning. The school board and principal also feel that Radio may be an unhealthy addition to their environment, particularly because he’s not a student. So Jones struggles to keep the young man comfortable while balancing the issues with his two life passions -- his family and his football team.
Writer Mike Rich and director Tollin appear to be telling their story with little embellishment, whereas other non-fiction works like Remeber the Titans and The Rookie spice up their fact-based screenplays with the right amount of creative liberty. In The Rookie, for example, the subplot of Dennis Quaid’s emotional separation from his father was almost entirely made up, but it added to the film’s overall dramatic effect.
The few changes made in Radio do little to make the film more interesting. It’s unclear whether Radio was actually hazed by the local football team or if the father of one of the players was truly so selfish that he protested Radio’s involvement in his son’s life. But the lackluster characters of Rich’s script, especially the supporting ones, are boring enough that the film might as well be a word-for-word account of the true story. People like Jones’s wife and daughter, the school principal, and even the angry father -- the largest antagonist figure -- who wants Radio removed from the team, are all dull characters that only serve to manipulate the story. They pose little actual threat to Ed Harris’s protagonist, and fortunately he’s a good enough actor that he hides the boredom of this experience well.
Harris holds the film to a certain height of respectability with a solid performance that mirrors the lionhearted mission controller he played in Apollo 13. (Coincidentally, Apollo 13 composer James Horner provides Radio’s rather unoriginal score.) Coach Jones is the deepest figure in the story, and thankfully Harris doesn’t leave it up to the supporting cast of cardboard cutout characters to make the conflict work. His support for Radio never dissipates, and the script eventually provides a reason behind it instead of letting us believe that he’s just simply a nice guy.
Only one other character makes a strong impact on the story, and it’s actually not Cuba Gooding Jr.’s Radio. A young man played by Riley Smith starts off as Radio’s biggest enemny. As the punk football star, his character is truly the most round because he goes from being a heartless prankster to one of Radio’s best friends. This element, though low on the screenplay’s list of priorities, defines the selfless lessons of Radio.
The character of Radio himself, however, is only another vehicle for audience manipulation. Cuba Gooding Jr. plays a decent part, but he stands out very little in the scheme of things. The actor, who really hasn’t been all that impressive since Jerry Maguire, lets his prop teeth do half the work. There is little attachment between his character and the viewer, unlike the mentally challenged characters we’ve seen in films such as Rain Man and Forrest Gump. Though Oscar voters might have disagreed when Jerry Maguire came out in 1996, Gooding Jr. is in a completely different league than masters Dustin Hoffman and Tom Hanks (who each won Academy Awards for playing handicapped men in Rain Man and Forrest Gump, respectively).
On the bright side, Radio is suitable for viewers of all ages, and younger people especially will ignore the fact that the movie tugs desperately at our heartstrings. After all, the movie means well and manages to get a fair amount of its message across. Chances are, though, that not everyone will buy into the movie’s tricks (which include a sappy finale that shows the real James “Radio” Kennedy and Coach Harold Jones receiving accolades). In the end, you may realize after all that it’s not entirely cynical to criticize such a well-meaning but poorly executed film.
-- Andy Zientek (zfilm@earthlink.net)