Radio Movie Review:


Though inspired by a true story, Radio is an uplifting film that all audiences have witnessed before. Not to derail you into thinking that this is a
bad film, it is not, but it has its share of flaws.

Hanna High football in Anderson, South Carolina during 1976 is the talk of the town. Under the leadership of the popular head coach Harold Jones (Ed Harris), the locals are excited about the team’s current season. The community is centered on the high school with a commitment to winning with everyone following Jones’ leadership. He is an aggressive coach who is also a classroom
teacher, but seems to have no time at all for his wife Linda (Debra Winger) or his teenage daughter (Sarah Drew).

After one day catching a few of his players mistreating a mentally challenged young man (Cuba Gooding, Jr.), the coach finds a spot in his heart for the man that becomes known as "Radio," do to his love of music and collection of
radios. Radio is not homeless, he lives with his mother, but she is hardly home due to long work hours at the hospital. Radio mostly wanders the streets of Anderson pushing a grocery buggy full of his findings. Coach Jones slowly nurtures the young man’s liking by offering him to help out at practice and giving him food. Radio becomes part of the team by doing anything from leading
warm-ups to being their biggest cheerleader. Though most people like him, some
of the locales begin seeing Radio as a distraction for Coach Jones, who becomes a mentor to the young man. Outside of helping with the team, Radio also sits in on Jones’ classes, reveals the school’s lunch menu during morning announcements, among other things. With many obstacles ensuing from every direction, Coach Jones and Radio are faced will change their lives forever.

The real life story of Radio or James Robert Kennedy, Hanna High School, and Coach Jones has spanned over 40 years. Based off the 1996 Sports Illustrated article by Gary Smith, director Mike Tollin and writer Mike Rich chose to
minimize the story into a one-year frame. This choice works for the better with Jones and Radio’s relationship being the centrality of the story, which
stands above the obvious problems in the script. With subject matter regarding a mentally challenged characters, the presentation and portrayal has to be taken very gingerly to where situations do not come across as offensive like in
some films (There is Something About Mary) or too redundant and unnecessary (I Am Sam). Radio’s story is taken gently, there are moments that come across with characters portrayed as villains, when they are actually just concerned individuals doing there jobs (such as the school board character of Mr. Tucker). However, the film’s subject matter is not beaten to a pulp, it is presented and them continued on with. The inconsistencies mostly occur outside of Jones and Radio’s relationship such as the many notions about Radio’s brother
Walter, who is never seen in the film. The indecisiveness of Alfre Woodard’s Principal Daniels as to if she is siding with Radio or the concerned locals also becomes annoying.

Tollin does a commendable job handling this film, but there seemed to be some unnecessary staging with his choices (watch the sequences during the
credits). The look of the 70’s throughout the film is pleasant and the focus never leaves Radio and Jones’ relationship. There is a choice of just mixing a montage of sequences over a few minutes for the audience to accept Radio as a part of the football team community, but it is just too quick to be acceptable.

Sporting false teeth and wobbly mannerisms, Cuba Gooding, Jr. handles the challenging role of playing Radio wonderfully. Though his work is not award
worthy, Gooding, Jr. is a lot better as Radio than his last few acting performances (Boat Trip, Snow Dogs). Ed Harris is terrific and genuine as the
mentoring Coach Jones, in which his accent floats in and out, but Harris is the type of actor that you can not take your eyes off of. Alfre Woodard arise as the indecisive Principal Daniels and Debra Winger is still so beautiful despite her age as Harris’ wife, though she as a minor role.

Radio is a feel good movie that everyone has seen before. Though the real life story is inspiring, the film has a few inconsistencies. For those of
you who get choked up easily, bring some Kleenex.

Grade: C+

10/24/03

Joseph C. Tucker

If it weren't true, this film would be unbearable in its heartwarming expressions of tolerance and love. But it is true, and the characters have an authenticity that transcends the over-earnest filmmaking. As a young man, James Robert Kennedy (Gooding) is nicknamed for the ubiquitous radio he carries around his South Carolina town. It's the mid-1970s, and his race and mental disability leave him on the fringe of society until the high school's Coach Jones (Harris) asks him to help with the football team he's so clearly fascinated with. As their friendship deepens, they draw out the best in each other and the team, even as the town remains suspicious of Jones' motives and Radio's place in society.

Even though Tollin's direction is too slick and cosy, the film comes to life in its vividly written and performed characters. Gooding somehow avoids grandstanding in what would normally be an Oscar-bait role; he remains completely unselfconscious, drawing out Radio's simple honestly without ever being noble. And Harris expertly underplays the script's heroism to instead play a normal guy doing the right thing for a change, but still finding room for improvement. Supporting characters are also strong--Woodard as the conflicted school principal, Merkerson as Radio's earthy and caring mother, Smith as a jealous but thoughtful star player, and especially Winger as Jones' patient wife. Mulkey is also good in the thankless villain role, but it's here that the film begins to unravel: Why do we need a villain?

Screenwriter Rich seems obsessed with introducing dramatic conflict, which feels both strained and convenient. Everything remotely meaningful in the narrative is telegraphed heavily both in the script and in the filmmaking itself (major musical shifts, clunky direction). At least they avoid a cornball climactic game or an overwrought gruelling confrontation in lieu of an intriguingly understated finale ... which of course gets very weepy. As a look at how one person's compassion can transform someone else--and a whole community--this is a powerful story indeed. But it would be much better as a scruffy indie, free from the slick, manufactured structure of Hollywood.

Rich Cline

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