Draft Day

Sonny Weaver (Costner), general manager of the Cleveland Browns, is having a tough time in this Ivan Reitman comic drama. He's recently fired the team’s coach (his newly deceased father) and got his colleague and girlfriend (Garner) pregnant. If that wasn’t enough to deal with, it’s NFL draft day – think transfer deadline day with higher production values – and Sonny must rely on his gut instincts to save his job under the glare of team owner (Langella) and ire of the new head coach (Leary).  

As court cases from ex-players mount up at the NFL, it would be easy to throw a yellow flag at this marketing-exercise-cum-film. And yet, though much of the dialogue is wordy exposition, the storytelling is tighter that a tight end’s tights and Costner delivers one of his vintage underdog performances. Sports film fans will lap it up but others may struggle to keep their heads in the game. [Danny Scott]