Peter Landesman
Zona d'ombra

THE REVIEW

Bennet Omalu (Will Smith) is a Nigerian neuropathologist working as a coroner in Pittsburgh. He is a man far removed from American customs and doesn't think conventionally. For example, he talks to the corpses before each autopsy, to the amusement of his colleagues.
One day he performs the autopsy on Iron Mike, an American football player considered a legend, physically healthy and around 50 years old. He spent his last years in disgrace, living in a car. Omalu immediately realizes that the causes may lie only in the brain and decides to delve deeper into the analysis, paying for it out of his own pocket. He discovers that the brain had suffered severe trauma in countless game collisions.

But this is only the beginning of a long list of former players who die from the same cause which, needless to say, is strongly denied by the NFL (National Football League, editor's note), to the extent that they discredit Omalu in every possible venue.

The only one to lend him a hand is Dr. Julian Bailes (Alec Baldwin), a former doctor of Iron Mike's football team, and his friend, who acts as an insider... but I don't want to spoil the ending.

The film is all about Omalu's internal conflict, as he wonders how it is possible that the economic interest surrounding America's most beloved sport prevails over science and the lives of the men involved.

Smith is quite believable and well cast in the role, but in my opinion, the script is weak and lacks pace and punch.

Key phrase: "The NFL owns a day of the week, the same day that used to belong to the Church. They are very powerful"