RADIO
A film review by Steve Rhodes
Copyright 2003 Steve Rhodes
RATING (0 TO ****): ***
RADIO, directed by Michael Tollin (SUMMER CATCH) and written by Mike Rich
(THE ROOKIE), is unabashedly schmaltzy but touching nonetheless. It's a
PG-rated family film that stars Cuba Gooding Jr. in his first good
performance in a long time. Gooding plays James Robert Kennedy, a sweet
simpleton with downcast eyes and badly formed teeth who spends his life
pu****ng a Piggly Wiggly shopping cart around his small town. James gets
the
nickname of Radio from his fascination with and collection of radios of
all
kinds. The film is "inspired by a true story," and we get to see the real
Radio, now in his fifties, in action in some poignant footage at the end
of
the picture.
The inspiring story kicks off with a school prank gone horribly bad. A
bunch of the football players on Coach Harold Jones's (Ed Harris) team at
T.
L. Hanna High School tie up Radio and lock him in a dark shed. The coach,
a
classic good old boy (the story is set in Anderson, South Carolina in
1976),
does more than just punish the players with extra wind sprints; he
effectively adopts Radio, making him the team's mascot, cheerleader and
ballboy. A young man of an indeterminate age, Radio is mentally
handicapped. When he speaks, he is barely audible, but, firmly under the
coach's wing, he begins to blossom. Helping out the team, he also finds
meaning and real happiness for the first time, something that his poor
mother, played by S. Epatha Merkerson ("Law & Order"), tries to give him
when she isn't working long hours at the hospital.
The coach loves his football more than just about anything on earth,
including his family, which consists of a sup****tive but undemanding wife,
Linda (Debra Winger), and a needy but equally undemanding daughter, Mary
Helen (Sarah Drew). The moral of the story seems to be that there's more
to
life than football. (The movie, however, features lots of good s****ts
action but, thankfully, eschews the classic big ending game structure.)
The
coach realizes that helping the helpless is what he wants most of all from
life.
RADIO is a story of sacrifice and love that blatantly tugs at your
heartstrings but is easy to forgive since it does so honestly and openly.
It's also sometimes as funny as it is melodramatic. If you're in the mood
for a good-spirited message movie, RADIO would be a fine choice.
RADIO runs 1:49. The film is rated PG for "mild language and thematic
elements" and would be acceptable for all ages.
The film opens nationwide in the United States on Friday, October 24,
2003.
In the Silicon Valley, it will be showing at the AMC and the Century
theaters.
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Email: Steve.Rhodes@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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