Invincible

Mark Wahlberg
Greg Kinnear
Michael Rispoli
Elizabeth Banks
Directed by: Ericson Core

Normally, when sitting through an inspirational Disney film the least you can ask for is an inspiring story. From there it is up to the filmmakers and actors to attempt to move the audience, or to at least give the audience a reason to care. This film really does neither. Invincible is the story of Vince Papale
(Wahlberg), a local boy from Philadelphia with no football training past high school. He enters an open tryout and earns a spot on an NFL football team, the Philadelphia Eagles.

In the mid seventies, most of the population of Philadelphia was in a recession and those that were lucky enough to have a job were on the verge of being out of work due to strike. Most of its citizen poured their grief and suffering into a football team which had one of the worst records in the league. Then a local boy rises above it all to help make a hapless team better. That sounds like the perfect opportunity for a nice wholesome inspirational film right? You can almost see the entire city cheering on their hero as his exploits make the entire city more bearable. The scene almost writes itself and has numerous times in different sports films. This film will have none of that though. Unfortunately, it really doesn’t allow much in the way of anything of the sort. Our hero accomplished his goal about halfway through the film and we just get to watch him try to stay on the team. Also, no one really seems to notice what is going on except a few buddies in his local bar.

His story really doesn’t seem to help inspire anyone, including Vince Papale. Once he made the team, nothing else really seems to happen. This moment of triumph comes across as just another moment in the film, without fanfare. The adversity ends and we are left with a guy on a football team hanging out with his friends.

The supporting characters are all pretty generic and completely forgettable. Mark Wahlberg seems to just kind of float through the movie and even the director didn’t seem to know why the material was important enough to warrant making a movie. I can’t even suggest seeing this film for some spectacular football scenes. The scenes seemed to actually be shot with a different type of film and in different speeds. The effect was actually off-putting and a little disorienting.
 

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