Despite some of the poorer decisions in his career, Kevin Costner remains one of those likable actors whom you could have a warm conversation with.
Throughout his career, he’s managed to bring something to each of his roles even if it didn’t always work out.
Costner started off last year with “3 Days to Kill,” a highly mediocre action comedy. But for 2015, he opened with “McFarland, USA,” a predictable yet heart-warming true story set in the late 80s.
Coach Jim White [Kevin Costner] doesn’t have the best track record when it comes to keeping his job and, because of this, he packs up his wife [Maria Bello] and his two daughters [Morgan Saylor and Elsie Fisher] and drives off to his next position.
Philip Bergeron / Graphic Design Editor
Jim ends up being transferred to McFarland, California where he plans to teach football to high school students.
What he didn’t know was that McFarland is primarily a Latino community, so he sticks out like a sore thumb.
After getting used to the environment, he notices that some of the students are better runners than football players.
This is his inspiration to develop McFarland High’s first ever cross-country track team, to show that these boys can dream of more than going to work in the fields.
At this point, it’s commonplace for Disney to make a sports movie every year or so. “Million Dollar Arm” didn’t wow me last year, but it was fine for what it was.
So when I heard that yet another movie like that was going to come out, I could not have cared less. While the film never had any surprises, “McFarland” was a delight to watch.
Like I said before, Kevin Costner is, well, Kevin Costner. He doesn’t play anything new here, but he’s so good at what he does, that it doesn’t bother me all that much.
I didn’t know anything about this story going in and his character guided me through everything nice and swift.
It’s a fish-out-of-water story but it’s told in the way that it should be, as a means to shine light on various cultures.
Yes, this is a film about cross-country, yet the main focus is fleshing out the characters and their roots.
You all know the sports movie formula by now, yet somehow it works here.
The lead runner is reluctant at first, but after some rigorous training, he’s ready to go. There’s the large kid who can’t keep up but he’s trying so hard. Cliches like that are rampant but you actually get to know the characters as people instead of lazy stereotypes.
When it comes to the look of the film, the cinematography is good. It’s not going to win any awards but it gets the job done nonetheless.
The same thing can be also be said for the score.
Director Niki Caro took what could have been just another lazy sports film and rose above that.
Rating: B
Matt Bilodeau can be contacted at mbilodeau@kscequinox.com
