42 (2013)

Directed by Brian Helgeland. Starring Chadwick Boseman, Harrison Ford, Nicole Beharie, André Holland, T. R. Knight, Alan Tudyk, Christopher Meloni, John C. McGinley, Toby Huss, Lucas Black, Max Gail, Brett Cullen, Hamish Linklater, Brad Beyer, Jesse Luken. [PG-13]

Biographical sports picture of Jackie Robinson (Boseman), the man who broke Major League Baseball’s color barrier with the Brooklyn Dodgers, is likably old-fashioned and sentimental. A comprehensive documentation of his life would have been difficult to distill into two hours, so the filmmakers focus on the days between Dodgers owner Branch Rickey’s decision to bring a black ballplayer into the farm system and the end of Jackie’s first season in the majors. Earnest character detail in supporting roles help fill in the emotional blanks, as Boseman plays Jackie as tough but necessarily stoic in the face of heinous antagonism from sports fans, opponents, even players on his own team; going full-on cornball as Rickey, Ford hasn’t seemed this lively in years, a springy smile concealing his patented growl. Hokey moments aplenty—including a ham-fisted “learned racism” bit in the Cincinnati bleachers and dialogue like, “Everybody needs you…you’re medicine, Jack!”—but it’s a pacy, glossed-over crowd-pleaser that provides sufficient entertainment value. Just please don’t mistake Movie 43 as being a sequel to this film.

72/100