Review of Concussion (2015) by Kadeem H — 26 Dec 2015

Concussion stars Will Smith, Alec Baldwin, Albert Brooks, and many more. This movie is set in 2002, and it is based on a true story about a doctor, played by Will Smith, who came from Nigeria to America, and he does autopsies. So one day, he encounters a dead NFL player who killed himself. And Will Smith studies on the dead player, and discovers that it is dementia that caused his death, and the cause of death was because of the concussions he had when he was playing in the NFL. And Will Smith thinks it's really bad. So this movie is about Will Smith vs. the huge corporation, known as the NFL. And his job is to warn people about this stuff. And it is a battle about convincing others to help out.

Now when we go an watch football, we all got to admit, we love seeing players crashing into each other, and bumping heads. That is one of the coolest things about football. And we cheer and roar, and it feels so good. But after coming out from this movie, we had no idea of the pain that these players have to go through. It is really bad, because what happens next is that these players have headaches and many problems involving their brain, they get depressed, lose their minds, get very desperate, and in the end, when they feel hopeless. Boom. They end their lives. And now we got somebody like Will Smith getting to the bottom of this. I view this movie as some sort of learning experience. When I watch football sometimes, I never focus on this. And after coming out, I get to remember some cringe worthy facts about football. This movie has some guts. They are able to take a subject, and put it on the screen. It feels like if this movie itself is against the NFL. But all the movie just wants to do is to tell you guys that it is a serious matter. And thankfully today, people in the NFL are doing whatever they can to prevent tragedies to happen ever again.

Will Smith in this movie did really well. However, when I first saw him on screen, I was distracted by his accent. I was like "hey, this isn't the Will Smith I know." But as the movie goes on, I grew a custom to his accent and as a result he did really well, and I have been hearing news about him being nominated for a Golden Globe. Alec Baldwin. He did great in this too. He is the guy who is with Will Smith during this battle. And then you got Albert Brooks. Really great performance from him.

Of all the actors in this movie, the story belongs to Will Smith. In this movie, the story focuses on Will Smith's work as a doctor, his family, and pretty much many things. I find that to be a good thing. But the biggest issue with this movie is that it is very unbalanced. And because of that, you got parts in the movie where you are intrigued, and then other parts where it feels like it is dragging on. In the movie, when Will Smith learns that a player killed himself, he does his research, he talks to more people, and then rinse and repeat, until eventually, they get into the bottom of the issue. What I wanted from this movie is more meat. I wanted to know more about the topic. But the minutes in this movie sometimes takes more time focusing too much about his family, and sometimes you feel like this movie is missing something. Let's take a movie like Spotlight, which gives us information about the Catholic church scandal in a way that doesn't feel like it's taking too much of its time. The reporters in the movie wanted a story, so they work hard on it. However in Concussion, it feels like the movie is taking too much of its time. And I think the movie should have cut some parts with Will Smith and his family, and focus a little more on the issue. Otherwise, it feels like you are not getting enough.

Concluding this, this movie is pretty good, especially if you are a football fan. You get to learn some things, the performances were great. Not like Spotlight, but pretty decent. This isn't a film I would watch again, but it was a pretty fair experience of knowing this topic not many people are aware of.