Movie Reviews

There's that one moment in a sports movie, even the cheesy ones, where it gets you—the catch in your throat, the butterflies in your stomach, the swelling of your heart. The moment where yes, dammit, you want that team to win, you want the runner to cross the finish line—please, please let that kid catch the ball!

They got you, and they got you good. It is shameless, but that moment, that feeling of total empathy, is essential to the success of every athletic underdog story. In We Are Marshall, Matthew McConaughey wants you to feel it. Director McG wants you to feel it. But dang it all, you just never do.

We Are Marshall is about the Marshall University football team that was felled by a tragic plane crash in 1970. Only a few players remain, and a young, optimistic new coach named Jack Lengyel (McConaughey) comes to town to try to make the next season worth playing.

This is the kind of movie that's supposed to make you cry like a baby, but it rings hollow.

The characters are archetypes borne of a long history of similar films, and we've seen them a million times before. Yet instead of fleshing them out, the inner lives of each character are neatly tucked away.

For example, Jack is a firecracker in every scene, a funny, loony Pollyanna. In every single scene. Any moments of doubt? Any flashes of anger, frustration? Nope. Why should we care so much for characters who are nothing but paper cutouts?

In We Are Marshall, McG is conducting a one-note symphony, losing the impact of the real story of Marshall University. The next time he comes across such rich real-life inspiration, he should turn it into a documentary.