When the Game Stands Tall - 2 1/2 smiles

“When the Game Stands Tall” tells an interesting story about the impact of a loss on a team, its players and the community. And although it’s based on a true event, the movie is too cliché-riddled and predictable to be a top sports movie. The critical defeat, which occurs early in the proceedings, serves as little more than a plot point and its ramifications are handled in a perfunctory manner laced with a lot of ‘losing builds character’ homilies. In the late summer of 2004, the De La Salle Spartans, the varsity football team of a Concord, California high school, held the longest winning streak in organized football: 151 games over 12 undefeated seasons. On September 4, De La Salle had the streak snapped after falling to the underdog Bellvue Wolverines. Director Thomas Carter includes enough background to bring the uninitiated up to speed: during the summer following the Spartans’ march to their 12^th state title, a star player is shot to death, Coach Bob Ladouceur (Jim Caviezel) suffers a heart attack and most of the team’s top talent departs for college glory. After their loss, Ladouceur must refocus his players so their legacy becomes greater than that of ‘the boys who broke the streak.’

The film’s most entertaining and exciting sections of the film are two football match-ups – a pivotal game against powerhouse long Beach Poly and a state championship contest. Unfortunately, when the action moves off the field, the narrative gets overly sentimental with clichéd dialogue, stock situations and trite characters. Plus Carter is so manipulative that you’re sure to need a tissue. Jim Caviezel, currently one of the stars in Person of Interest on CBS, rarely emotes, delivering his lines in mostly a monotone. You would think that a coach would have a little more energy. Laura Dern has the thankless role of the supporting wife and Michael Chiklis, as Ladoucer’s assistant coach Teddy Edison, steals just about every scene he’s in. “When the Game Stands Tall” is too intent on influencing our emotions that it loses sight of some potentially powerful issues about hero worship and how the pressure to succeed can be damaging. Nonetheless, it’s a feel-good movie that you might want to see before it leaves the theaters. 8/24/14