‘Concussion’ doesn’t hit hard enough

The evidence is chilling, and the suffering is very real. Yet, ironically, "Concussion" isn't nearly as hard-hitting as it needs to be.

It's difficult not to think that the film, which follows Dr. Bennet Omalu's (Will Smith) discovery of the football-related chronic traumatic encephalopathy and the NFL's efforts to silence him, is being released at least five years too late or too soon.

Based on the 2009 GQ article "Game Brain" by Jeanne Marie Laskas, most of the facts "Concussion" presents aren't new. But there hasn't been enough substantive change as a result of Omalu's efforts for there to be a happy, or even a real, ending.

When the body of NFL Hall of Famer "Iron" Mike Webster (David Morse) is delivered to the Allegheny County Coroner's facility in 2002, forensic neuropathologist Omalu doesn't recognize the legendary former Steeler. Despite living in Pittsburgh, the Nigerian immigrant didn't follow football at the time.

Omalu has no idea what he's looking for, but he knows there was something abnormal about Webster, who'd been living out of his truck, pulling his teeth and gluing them back in, and who looked at least two decades older than his 50 years. So Omalu orders the most thorough series of tests his boss and mentor, Dr. Cyril Wecht (Albert Brooks), has ever seen — at his own expense.

What he eventually uncovers would change the way the world looks at American football.

For a man this brilliant — an early courtroom scene establishes that he has more degrees than a thermometer — Omalu is portrayed as being remarkably naive. He honestly can't believe that a billion-dollar company that exists only because its employees inflict irreparable harm on each other wouldn't want to take better care of those employees. Or that the NFL would try to make his life miserable.

Wecht: "What did you think they were going to say, 'Thank you'?"

Omalu: "Yes."

Along the way, Omalu falls in love with the young Kenyan parishioner (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) he takes in at the behest of his priest. And he finds an ally in Dr. Julian Bailes (Alec Baldwin), the Steelers' former team doctor. But "Concussion," written and directed by Peter Landesman ("Parkland"), is primarily the story of Omalu's one-man crusade.

Smith, unable to simply coast on his legendary charm, gets to actually act for a change. Although some of "Concussion's" most powerful moments come simply from his watching "Jacked Up," ESPN's then weekly celebration of catastrophic hits, and videos of little kids knocking each other unconscious on the playing field.

The film also benefits from another winning supporting role from Brooks, whose genius simply isn't tapped often enough.

But while the NFL reportedly was very concerned about the movie, its fears were largely overblown. The league doesn't come off well by any means — somewhere between clueless and criminal — but "Concussion" isn't nearly dramatic enough to incite outrage, or more importantly, calls for change.

— Contact Christopher Lawrence at clawrence@reviewjournal.com. On Twitter: @life_onthecouch.