Review- Friday Night Lights

FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS

   "I like enthusiasm, but my goodness!"

   Coach Gary Gaines utters this line about one of his hyperactive players, but he might as well be talking about the entire town of Odessa, Texas.  I love football as much as most American guys (maybe it borders on obsession when I use vacation time from my job to leave early on Sunday), but this town takes football obsession to the next level.  Businesses close early and proudly post that they've gone to the game.  Dinner parties discuss the team's chances.  Townsfolk bombard the coach's office with suggestions for the defense.  Since high school teams only play about ten games a season, it makes one wonder what these people do with the rest of their lives.  Probably discuss the past or upcoming season, is my guess.

   One of the points the movie gets across well is that these young players live joyless lives.  Like one kid says, "It's a small town so everyone knows when you screw up."  Is it unfair for seventeen-year-old boys to carry the weight of a town's identity on their shoulders?  Of course it is.  That's what makes it all the more sad that this is a true story.  These boys work their butts off playing as hard as they can and get barely any reward except for the constant reminders from has-been adults that this is the best time of their life and it is very fleeting.  "You have one year to make memories," a father says.  Quite a depressing outlook on life.

  The problem I had with the movie, and it's tough because it's supposed to be this way, is that it is as narrow-minded as its subject.  What's wrong with the quarterback's mom?  I must have missed it if they told us.  Aren't there any girls at this school other than the borderline hookers who appear at one party?  When your whole town is obsessed with the high school football team it doesn't leave much room for personality.  By the time two guys pull up outside Wal-mart and tell the coach he better win the state championship or else, I was saying, "Okay, I get it."

   It's easy to get wrapped up in the big game at the end, considering the implied stakes, but for anyone looking for depth, it really turns into just another sports movie at this point.  The unlikely heroes, the monster team inexplicably getting weaker in the second half, etc...  The football scenes are the most fun, however, most likely to remind us why people would get so into this stuff.  It's a fun game.

  The film is well-cast and shot like a documentary making it easy to forget sometimes that these people are actors.  Tim McGraw certainly looks and acts the part of a drunken dad who sees his own failure in the failures of his son.  I was a little distracted by the Sling Blade reunion every time coach Billy Bob Thornton had a heart to heart with the quarterback, but that was my problem.

  Overall, I wish the movie had gone a little deeper into its characters, but considering the one-track mind of its subjects, there probably wasn't much else there anyway.

2.5 stars