42 review

                 It might seem easy for younger people to feel like systematic racism is only a thing of the past.  As a culture, over the past few decades, we have made huge social leaps into becoming a fully integrated society. Unfortunately, obvious remnants of America’s ugliest history are still evident, as was recently observed in the shocking news of segregated proms in Georgia.  With all of this in the background, Hollywood has released a warmly-lit, carefully phrased, historical biopic about the legendary Jackie Robinson, the first African American professional baseball player.

                Written and directed by Brian Helgeland, “42” aims to be a crowd pleasing sports picture, a nicely dressed historical time-warp and an inspirational message movie, all at the same time. In crossing these paths the film sloshes all it’s the sugary goodhearted intentions together, resulting in a sometimes entertaining, but ultimately edgeless, high budget, TV-movie syrup, sporting a good cast that barely has anything to do.

                The story of Jackie Robinson, as it is presented in this flick, chronicles the first few years of his time with the Brooklyn Dodgers and how he was treated during the 1940’s when segregation was nationally institutionalized. Branch Rickey (Harrison Ford) hires Robinson (Chadwick Boseman), knowing full well that he will be subjected to ever-present hate and prejudice. Early on, when he first offers the job, Rickey warns Jackie that he will have to turn the other cheek and to be ‘strong enough to not fight back’. With the emotional support of his wife (Nicole Beharie), he struggles to keep his cool and succeed as he’s pushed around by the competition, the fans and even some of his own teammates. 

                Having directed movies like “Payback” and “The Order” and written slightly better movies like “Mystic River” and “LA Confidential”, Helgeland is the type of guy who knows how to entertain people, even if he thinks of the audience as a simple minded, sentimental sponge that still requires their thematic carrots to be finely mashed and spoon-fed. However, despite the fact that every movement of this by-the-numbers biopic is calculated and sometimes painfully heavy-handed in its obvious moralizing, there’s an easy going breeziness in this movie’s-movie that’s agreeable and acceptable.

                In support of a somewhat corny melodrama, the cast is actually well selected and used to good effect. Newcomer Chadwick Boseman brings a lot of brooding interiority to his portrayal as Robinson and actually shows more restraint and nuance than this movie displays anywhere else. The rest of the cast features some nicely pitched character actors. Allan Tudyk, as the vulgarly racist manager of the Phillies, brings some of the needed heaviness that this movie severely lacks, even if his performance reeks of judgment against his own character. Lucas Black and Hamish Linklater, as some of the other members of the Dodgers, are also pleasant little additions and their natural charisma helps make their thankless, underwritten parts memorable and screen-friendly.

                Friendly is the word I would use to describe “42”. It continually stands up for its subject (Jackie), it gives us all the wanted glory of a bighearted sports movie, and it’s romantically shot in soft-light and sunsets. The problem is, racism, then and now, isn’t friendly. The movie memorializes Robinson and it gives him what essentially plays like a two hour Oscar clip to chastise those who might have crossed him at that time, and like similar films, such as “The Help” and “The Blindside”, the I-told-you-so tone of the picture feels naively dishonest and white-washed (pun completely intended). But if you can ignore all the saccharine political correctness, there is something in its grandstanding, cheesy simplicity that’s kind of sweet and earnest and it’s easy to cheer along to, even if those cheers are mechanically contrived.

Grade: C

Originally published in the Idaho State Journal/April-2013