Jeff's Reviews

Thoughts on every movie I've ever seen.

42 (2013)

Directed by Brian Helgeland

Starring Chadwick Boseman, T.R. Knight, Harrison Ford, Nicole Beharie

Author

Boseman does a good job as Jackie. The baseball play is also pretty good, though I would have liked to see Boseman emulate Jackie’s unique running style.

But the story tends to drag a bit. We get it, white people in the south hated him. At the risk of sounding insensitive, is that really enough for a dramatic arc? Somehow, I feel like there should have been more going on here, more at stake, more to root for other than Jackie’s legendary tolerance of hatred.

As a baseball fan, I’m familiar with the story, so none of it was very new to me. Perhaps it could have been more interesting if it was Rickey’s story, giving us more unique perspective on very well-chronicled historical events.

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