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''One day, not today, not tomorrow, not this season, probably not next season either but one day, you and I are gonna wake up and suddenly we're gonna be like every other team in every other sport where winning is everything and nothing else matters. And when that day comes, well thats, thats when we'll honor them.''
When a plane crash claims the lives of members of the Marshall University football team and some of its fans, the team's new coach (McConaughey) and his surviving players try to keep the football program alive.
Matthew McConaughey: Jack Lengyel
We Are Marshall is about inspiration. It starts with a tragedy, in a true story the plane crash which killed nearly the entire Marshall University football team. Then, it deals with the reactions of everybody the tragedy touched.
Director McG amusingly enough, made Charlie's Angels 1 and 2 which,without being very good at all, resulted in a fun comedy satire and good parodies of action.
I appreciate that McG made something different though with We Are Marshall, proving that he can do something else besides frantic action laced with comedy.
But overall, honestly,We Are Marshall did not convince me of much in the way of change or improvement.
The development is very predictable and the story is told by the most obvious ways.The ending pretends to be emotive but it really does not surprise.
It's obviously a very captivating story. So why does the movie not quite hit the heights you sense it should? The biggest problem is the movie's pace. Fifteen to twenty minutes easily could have been cut here to help the movie move along. As it is the movie struggles to build the momentum so important in leading to that big payoff at the end. Some characters seem superfluous, most notably that of the girlfriend of one of the dead players, as portrayed by Kate Mara. There's nothing wrong with Mara's performance, it's just that her character seems totally unnecessary and really adds nothing to the film. Any time spent with her character is time which could have been better spent elsewhere or better yet cut out of the film altogether. In the central role of the new coach Matthew McConaughey gives what is at times a frustrating performance. All the offbeat quirks and mannerisms wear thin after a while. Perhaps he was trying too hard to imitate the real Coach Lengyel, but whatever McConaughey was trying to do he never quite manages to convince. And since his character is at the very heart of the story that is a rather glaring problem with the movie. But despite the problems the movie may have it's still well worth seeing. You'll be both inspired and entertained. You just may get the sense you should have been a little bit more inspired and entertained than you actually were.
If you stick around through the closing moments, though, you will be treated to a truly inspiring epilogue. By keeping the football team going, Lengyel paved the way for a program that would have great success in the future. Kate Mara, recounts this success in a voice over and it's the most inspiring moment of the film. You want to admire Marshall because it's ultimately about the importance of perseverance, but the film is too bathetic to win the hearts of us, hard to please, viewers.
7/10
