The gridiron flick doesn't live up to its name.
The against-all-odds, based-on-a-true-story sports drama is among the safest designs in the film industry's playbook. Take your average good-natured-but-down-on-his-luck Joe Six-Pack-in the case of Ericson Core's
Invincible
, 30-year-old bartender, substitute teacher and Philadelphia Eagles superfan Vince Papale (Mark Wahlberg)-and have him achieve his lifelong dream of making it big through a combination of hard work, determination and luck.
It's a formula that's worked countless times but the only marvel in this ho-hum adaptation of Papale's unlikely route to a short-lived NFL career is how
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often first-time director and veteran cinematographer Core drops the ball. The camerawork in
Invincible
randomly alternates between static and out-of-control, often at the most inappropriate times. And screenwriter Brad Gann deserves as much, if not more, criticism for his dud of a script. In the film, playing for the Eagles isn't exactly Papale's lifelong aspiration: It's more a pipe dream, one that he makes no attempt to realize until he's presented with a gift-wrapped opportunity-which he only reluctantly takes advantage of, at the insistence of his supportive beer buddies. In fact, outside of a jealous cohort and a couple of snarky teammates, no one actually ever tells Papale he can't make the team. And it's made obvious from the first day of training
camp that he does have the talent to hang with the pros.
So where, exactly, is the conflict? It's certainly not in Papale's we're-not-ready relationship with his boss' cousin, Janet (Elizabeth Banks). Her staunch allegiance to the New York Giants in a sea of South Philly blowhards is worth an easy laugh or two-but otherwise, their
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would-be courtship serves only as a tedious distraction from the action on the gridiron. Not that what takes place on the field is particularly compelling, either.
Despite being completely undersized and of the wrong ethnicity for the part (the real Papale is 6-foot-2 and of Italian descent; the Irish-American Wahlberg is only 5-foot-8), Wahlberg does his best as the self-doubting nobody-turned-media-darling, but
Invincible
's inherent flaw is that Papale's feel-good story simply isn't interesting enough to sustain
Invincible
's 99-minute running time. And for all the time he spends setting up the film's climax-involving Papale and a punt return-Core inexplicably sucks the last breath of air from the film only minutes later, when the significantly underwhelming footage of the actual play rolls alongside the credits.
