Ultimately, American Underdog just doesn’t dig deep into big moments. It feels the need to focus on everything, which means there is depth to nothing. All the pieces to make this movie huge were there, but it just misses the mark. That said, I think you should at least give this a go and see what it is about. The story is still impactful at times and the struggle is still real. It’s got a great message and the performances are worth the short bursts. Just don’t go into it expecting a film that has much depth and flow to it.
I’m a sucker for a happy story, especially when it involves football. Being a Browns fan, I adored Draft Day and always make a point to watch that film right before pre-season in the NFL begins. It’s essentially the peak of my happiness as a Browns fan. Gosh, that’s sad just typing it out.
Anyway!
This week I had the good fortune of watching American Underdog, a somewhat biopic story of Kurt Warner’s journey from a long shot in the NFL to the MVP quarterback for the Super Bowl champion St. Louis Rams. That sentence alone doesn’t do the film justice, and sadly the film doesn’t really paint a complete and comprehensive picture of Warner’s long road to fame.
Let’s get into this.
Official Synopsis
American Underdog tells the inspirational true story of Kurt Warner (Zachary Levi), who went from a stockboy at a grocery store to a two-time NFL MVP, Super Bowl champion, and Hall of Fame quarterback. The film centers on Warner’s unique story and years of challenges and setbacks that could have derailed his aspirations to become an NFL player – but just when his dreams seemed all but out of reach, it is only with the support of his wife, Brenda (Anna Paquin) and the encouragement of his family, coaches, and teammates that Warner perseveres and finds the strength to show the world the champion that he already is. American Underdog is an uplifting story that demonstrates that anything is possible when you have faith, family, and determination.
Let me just say right out of the gate that I think the journey Warner and his wife Brenda took during their eventual destiny is inspiring. Hitting the lows of life and having the fortitude to stick together through thick and thin is something everyone in a relationship should strive for in their lives. It’s easy to give up on a relationship when the going gets hard, but it’s much tougher and far more gratifying to stick together and support each other when the shite hits the fan. Anyway, I adored that aspect of the story and thought that Zachary Levi and Anna Paquin captured that full rollercoaster relationship perfectly. I loved their performances, and they brought the movie’s story up more than a notch because of their efforts. Where American Underdog snagged itself in storytelling is depth, which sadly overshadowed those great performances.
When you tell someone’s life story on film, and you only have about two hours to do it, you must be choosy with the content. There is no respectful way to fully tell a journey that has as many curves as the Warner’s story has. If you have too many twists and turns, even though they may all be a part of the whole, you’re bound to shortchange some important parts along the way. American Underdog feels like bullet points in Kurt Warner’s life, rather than large meaningful moments in a huge timeline. It’s more about poor story flow than bad storytelling. Let me break down the acts and explain.
The first act of the film shows off Warner’s time at Northern Iowa, but we don’t get to see his struggles/success in Northern Iowa. We basically get a dose of ‘Stay in the pocket’ from his coach that goes nowhere. We see a bullheaded Kurt Warner, or so it seems, and a bullheaded coach. We see them together on screen for a total of 3-5 minutes, which means that we don’t see the full extent of their relationship. There just didn’t appear to be any time dedicated to building that up. Anyway, seeing Warner in college and seeing what he goes through would have been a better beginning to the overall story. Instead, we dabble a bit in that area, shift to the bar where he meets his wife, and then gloss over 10 games he plays before we land back at the doorstep of Brenda, where we learn she is a struggling single mom. There are a lot of small micro-story connections, but nothing lengthy or concrete to justify an emotional connection between audience and characters. The first act also establishes this rushing from moment-to-moment flow where stopping to smell the roses isn’t allowed.
The second act begins with Warner’s commitment to his future wife. It also shows his mom’s disdain for her (which really never goes anywhere). It then shifts to Warner briefly getting signed to the Packers but ends with his further commitment to his future wife and his eventual job downfall (also a passive threat by his future father-in-law). The second act sticks with the downfall, where the Warner’s are on food stamps, Kurt hits rock bottom with his dream and has to get a job at the local grocery, and ends with Warner giving in and playing in the Arena Football League (AFL). Everything is so rushed, and the pace of the film really doesn’t slow down, which is regretful because having healthy bridges/transitions between struggling moments would have done wonders building to the final act. There just isn’t a lot of impact felt from these moments because we’re quickly onto the next one. As someone who is high on good storytelling in a film, this goes against the narrative flow.
As the third act begins, the movie finally starts to tap the brakes. We’ve all been waiting for Warner to hit the big show, but it has seemingly been nowhere in sight. Once Warner finds success in the AFL and avoids breaking up with Brenda (could have been done much better with a bit more context to her concerns), he finally is presented with his big chance on the big stage – enter the St. Louis Rams. As you can imagine, he gets his chance on the field, makes the most of it, then leads his team to the Super Bowl.
What a great story, right?
All of it is bullet points. The great mistake in this film is that it simply didn’t pick and choose moments to focus on. You could certainly include nearly everything that the film offers up but picking and choosing which parts to expand on and which to gloss over would have made this journey on film so much more gratifying to watch. For example, the third act merely glosses over the fact that he won a Super Bowl. The film should have given us bits and pieces of him in his first game against the Ravens as a starter, then a larger montage of his 1999 season leading up to the Super Bowl. The film should have ended its third act on a more focused Super Bowl game (which was epic) and rode off into the sunset on the highest of high notes for Warner and Brenda. It just made the odd choice to focus on the first game of the season and essentially give us a summary of the rest of the season including the greatest moment for Kurt Warner. Again, way too much glossed over bullet points and not enough a flowing narrative that picks and chooses the pivotal moments of the Warner’s lives.
That isn’t to say that there isn’t something entertaining about all of this. Paquin and Levi absolutely knock their performances out of the park. I could have watched a four-hour version of this with them in it and would have been thoroughly satisfied. They’re great at Brenda and Kurt and they sell the struggle very well when they have time. In addition, the major flaws of the storytelling don’t completely overshadow the message the film is delivering about their struggle. There were some gut-wrenching moments in this movie, though shallow, that made me feel for this family. There is a moment where there is a winter storm, and the family is driving to Warner’s mom’s house to stay because their electricity is shut off in their apartment. They run out of gas because they didn’t have enough money to fill the truck up and Warner ends up running miles to a gas station to beg for a gallon of gas. If you have ever struggled like that in life, and I did when I was younger, it’s tough to watch. You feel some of those moments they go through, which makes Kurt Warner reaching his goal in football that much sweeter.
Ultimately, American Underdog just doesn’t dig deep into big moments. It feels the need to focus on everything, which means there is depth to nothing. All the pieces to make this movie huge were there, but it just misses the mark. That said, I think you should at least give this a go and see what it is about. The story is still impactful at times and the struggle is still real. It’s got a great message and the performances are worth the short bursts. Just don’t go into it expecting a film that has much depth and flow to it.
