Film Review: Draft Day

Director: Ivan Reitman

The recently released sports drama is looking to cash in on the recent television success of the real NFL draft that continues to see excellent ratings. The film was released in America around a month before the draft just as the analysis and excitement was about to hit fever pitch. With the interest in the sport still being niche in the UK, despite multiple games per year being played at Wembley, means that there is still no official release date set. There are a number of cameos from current players including Arian Foster and other celebrities like Sean Combs as well as all the NFL analysts on the likes of ESPN and the NFL Network.

Sonny Weaver Jr (Kevin Costner) is the General Manager of the long suffering Cleveland Browns ahead of the 2014 NFL draft who just fired his father from being Head Coach. Amongst all this turmoil he is told to "make a splash" by the Brown's owner, Anthony Molina (Frank Langella), to try and ignite the fanbase. He embarks on a battle to determine who the top prospect is as well as working on his secret relationship with Ali Parker (Jennifer Garner) who is a lawyer at the team.

Sonny Weaver Jr (Kevin Costner) and Ali Parker (Jennifer Garner)

The issue with basing an entire film around a fictionalized NFL draft is that it will always struggle to match the excitement of the real thing. The players are unknown to the audience and the pressure of each decision isn't really there for the fans following each pick, despite all the preamble before we aren't heavily invested in the draft decisions of Sonny Weaver Jr or even sure of the implications of his choice. The second issue is that there isn't really much in the way of a satisfying ending, you never really know if its a success or not.

Despite the restrictions on the format, it suffers from a pretty bog standard script and a plot that offers the cliché storylines of the secret girlfriend, the hot headed coach to provide an antagonist and the feeling that everyone is against our man Sonny. It does give a bit of an insight into the war room on draft day but not enough real depth and intrigue for your big NFL fans. A lot of the problems stem from characters basically explaining what's happening while NFL logos appear far more than necessary, its like its major selling point is that its pretty much the lone film endorsed by the NFL itself and unfortunately thats not enough.

1.5/4 Lacks sizzle of the real draft and is formulaic in plot