Draft Day

Plot: Cleveland Browns manager Sonny Weaver (Kevin Costner) has the seventh draft pick, and he wheels and deals to improve his situation. Overlaid on this is his romance with team lawyer Ali (Jennifer Garner), the recent death of the father, and the belligerence from the team's coach Penn (Denis Leary.)[imdb]    [photos]

Review: Draft Day: surprisingly good. The NFL draft has some natural suspense, and the clever script by 

by writers Scott Rothman and Rajiv Joseph sets up Sonny as a hard-working, lovable loser and creates a great climax as the draft plays out. In retrospect it seems so well designed.  

My DW hates football and she liked the movie. Jennifer Garner's role is strong enough to keep her interested -- if fact she liked it much better than last week's Spiderman. 

The conflict between Sonny and Leary's Coach Penn was necessary to ratchet up the tension. 

Naturally, most of the trading is on the phone, and director Reitman has some clever devices to keep the image interesting as we see the people talking. I also liked the images of the stadia (stadiums,) and the draft. He made the draft look much cooler than if probably actually is. 

Cast: Kevin Costner, Jennifer Garner, Denis Leary, many cameos

Directed by: Ivan Reitman

Rating: 2.5 stars: entertaining

 

More: Costner's Sonny is the general manager, and he is screwing team attorney Ali (Gardner.)  Hate to kill the romance, but this is workplace sexual harassment -- a relationship like that can never be consensual. I appreciate that a romance is a good plot device, but in real life, this is a bad idea.  

Even More: No way would those competing coaches make dumb trades like that at the end. 

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