The Movie Concussion Narrative, Not Anti-NFL

Concussion is the narrative film that dramatizes a doctor discovering CTE—a chemical protein that is created in the brain from repeated blows to the head and can cause the brain to deteriorate—after it was found in numerous former NFL players who died too young, and whose bodies were otherwise healthy. Concussion has an awards-friendly calendar date of Christmas, but it also an odd calendar date, considering that that month and the following month are the biggest months for the NFL and college football.

A hard-hitting documentary that lays out all the lies the NFL made about concussions and the eventual finding of CTE already exists. It’s called League of Denial and it is fantastic. Instead of swinging hard at the league, however, Concussion tells the personal story of the immigrant doctor who discovered and named CTE, Dr. Bennet Omalu (Will Smith). Omalu works on dead bodies. He has a thorough WORK ETHIC that annoys some, but inspires others. When Hall of Famer Mike Webster (David Morse) arrives on his autopsy table, his superior wants it taken care of as quickly as possible to retain the fallen hero’s dignity—but Omalu thinks that dignity includes the truth. Because Webster, 50, is otherwise healthy, he goes deep into brain tissue tests and discovers that America’s favorite sport has a dark shadow of protein cells that can choke the brain later in life.

Concussion features a few good asides from the immigrant perspective—Omalu puts down an NFL doctor who studied in Mexico, likely because his original Nigerian degree was perceived as too little in America—but those asides start to become hollow, and it starts to feel that the only reason for their inclusion is to appeal to the audience. For instance, there is a monologue about what it means to be American that Omalu, who is Nigerian, delivers to his Kenyan wife-to-be (Gugu Mbatha-Raw), that would better serve the film if Omalu was more disillusioned by corporate America’s response to his findings. We never see Omalu struggle to trust the system, even when the system is screwing him professionally.