CONCUSSION : Saturday 20th February 2016.

CONCUSSION which I saw over the weekend was released Stateside at Christmas and this latest Will Smith vehicle has so far received luke warm reviews but has made US$42M off its US$35M budget. Opening in Australia just last week, this biographical sports medical drama is based on the article written for GQ magazine in 2009 titled 'Game Brain' by Jeanne Marie Laskas, and was written for the big screen and Directed by investigative journalist Peter Landesman. This is a true story.


As the film opens we see retired NFL legend 'Iron' Mike Webster (David Morse almost unrecognisable) talking onstage about his life and his 18 years at the top of his game and what it meant on a daily basis to play the game for the Pittsburgh Steelers. As he speaks he struggles with his words and is clearly not the man he used to be - he is not yet 50 years of age, but looks older.

We then cut to a court room and Will Smith's Dr. Bennet Omalu is sat in the dock in court and for the jury is asked to give his credentials. It takes him five minutes to do so - such is the length of his qualifications, degrees, and educational track record gained in his native Nigeria, then the US and the UK in between.  He now works at the Pittsburgh Allegheny County Coroners Office as a forensic pathologist under County Coroner Dr. Cyril Wecht (Albert Brooks) and is in court to give evidence in a murder trial. It is 2002.

Meanwhile, Mike Webster's condition has worsened and we see him living in his battered pickup truck, practically destitute and suffering from the signs of amnesia, dementia, depression, bone & muscle pain, headaches and voices inside his head to a point where his state of mind has almost become unbearable. He seeks medication from former team doctor and good friend Dr. Julian Bailes (Alec Baldwin). A few days later Webster is found dead inside his pickup truck. The city of Pittsburgh reels from the news that their favourite son and NFL legend is dead. He winds up on a slab in the path lab at the Coroner's Office, with Omalu tasked with the autopsy.

Following extensive brain tissue investigation and meticulous research, Omalu determines that essentially NFL killed Webster, through repeated blows to the head throughout his career - blows to the head that the human brain is simply designed not to be able to withstand to such an extent and over such a prolonged period of time. He brings his findings to the attention of acclaimed neurologist Dr. Steven DeKosky (Eddie Marsan) who concurs with his findings but is apprehensive about publishing based on just one case. Omalu is convinced that other NFL players have died before, and more will follow, but they cannot run tests on the living, because the cause does not register on CT scans, and the symptoms are inconclusive.

In time there are further player deaths from very similar circumstances - Terry Long, Andre Waters and Justin Strzelczyk which allows Omalu to conduct further tests and draw the same conclusions time after time. He receives a call from Julian Bailes now retired from the NFL and running his own practice, who agrees with his findings but states clearly that Omalu is treading very dangerous ground, but offers his support. With DeKosky and Wecht he publishes his findings and conclusions in a medical journal which is quickly dismissed by the multi-billion dollar NFL machine, as the musings of an unqualified African quack! Giving the disease a name - chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) the NFL close ranks and begin a witch hunt against Omalu and those closest to him.

Feeling the pressures to back down from his continued work and what they reveal about the inherent dangers of the NFL game. Wecht becomes a victim of politically motivated 80+ trumped up corruption charges in an attempt to make Omalu resign, his wife Prema Mutisu (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) miscarries their first child as a result of being stalked, and the couple are forced to sell up their custom built dream home and relocate to California.

Three years later however, Bailes calls Omalu with the news that highly respected former NFL Players Association Executive Dave Duerson (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje) has shot himself dead due to ongoing cognitive issues, and in a suicide note left by his bedside he admits that Omalu was right all along. After years of brick walls, denial, dismissal, smear campaigns, and accusations against him and those near, the NFL is forced to sit up and finally take notice. Omalu is invited to attend and present at the National Football League Players Association national conference and talk about concussion and CTE in the game.

As the closing credits roll, we are told that since then it has been determined that 28% of all NFL players are diagnosed with the symptoms of CTE and most are in the 40's and 50's. As a result of his work and his findings the NFL had been forced to pay out huge undisclosed sums to the families and relatives of those that have succumbed to CTE and that Congress and the NFL have subsequently taken the concussion issue much more seriously.

This is a compelling dramatic film that had to be told given the enormity of the game and the almost god-like worship given to the players within it and the consequences of playing week after week year after year in such a brutal, violent yet beautiful sport. Will Smith gives a standout performance in every respect and is convincing in his restrained role as the reluctant but determined doctor just wanting the truth to be told. On the sideline Alec Baldwin and Albert Brooks in particular give fine supporting turns as supporters to Omalu in stoic do the right thing never back down fashion. Overlooked at the upcoming Academy Awards but nominated for a Golden Globe, this film picked up four award wins and another eleven nominations from around the traps - all mostly for Will Smith's performance. A film worth watching but don't expect 'Any Given Sunday' or 'Remember the Titan's'

-Steve, at Odeon Online-