Focus Features' film "Race" about Jesse Owens debuts Friday, with the biopic scoring a 58% rating among critics and an audience score of 77% on Rotten Tomatoes (THE DAILY). VARIETY's Andrew Barker wrote in "completely recounting a fairly can't-miss historical episode," the film "offers a safe, middlebrow slice of history that beats a snoozy lecture any day." The biopic is "better than it has to be, but not by too much, and it should be expected to compete, but not medal, at the box office" (VARIETY.com, 2/18). In N.Y., Stephen Holder writes the film is "studiously uplifting" and a "safe, by-the-numbers tribute." By confining its "time span to only three years," from '34-36, the movie "doesn't look beyond Owens's rise and moment of glory when he was 22." If "Race" is a "standard inspirational biopic that exalts the legend of an athletic hero, at least it doesn't soft-pedal the racism that Owens encountered." The film "reminds us that long before television elevated black sports heroes into gods, there were athletes like Jesse Owens who paved the way" (N.Y. TIMES, 2/19). The HOLLYWOOD REPORTER's Sheri Linden wrote the film is "largely a boilerplate affair that takes far too long to hit its stride." Whether the "clutter of loose threads, dead ends and flat scenes will deter viewers from one of the 20th century’s greatest stories is another matter." Owens’ triumph is "long overdue for big-screen treatment." But the movie "can feel adrift at times" (HOLLYWOODREPORTER.com, 2/18).
LACKING A SPARK: The WALL STREET JOURNAL's Joe Morgenstern writes the story "will speak to today’s audiences." But for all the "luster of its subject ... this earnest biopic lacks the spark of life." The film "suffers from the heavy hand of the director, Stephen Hopkins, and from the ineptitude of the screenplay" (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 2/19). In San Diego, Anders Wright writes the film is "merely good enough, rather than something spectacular." Even though "Race" deals with "racial issues, it's still a fairly simplistic, inspirational sports movie, in the same league as 'The Express' and '42.'" That "doesn't mean its message is unimportant or the story it tells unworthy, it's just that it doesn't tell it with any great complexity" (SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE, 2/19). POSTMEDIA NEWS' Chris Knight writes it is a "solid and well-meaning movie," but the "broad-brush portrait chooses to leave out the athlete’s controversial post-Games life, including an unsuccessful run at a showbiz career." The film leaves a "somewhat simplistic picture of the man" (POSTMEDIA NEWS, 2/19).
ON THE MEDAL STAND? In Cleveland, Joanna Connors writes "Race" offers an "inspirational, if somewhat routinely told, story of one man's resistance to and triumph over racial injustice" (Cleveland PLAIN DEALER, 2/19). In K.C., Robert Butler wrote the film is "inspiring," but is "also insipid." It feels like a "standard-issue sports movie: not exactly wince-worthy, but cliched and superficial." Viewers could "wish for more substance" in Owens' personal story (K.C. STAR, 2/18). In St. Louis, Calvin Wilson wrote the film takes a "mostly old-fashioned approach to its inspirational story." Still, it "might have been a bit grittier in depicting the indignities that Owens faced, and much bolder in addressing the outrages of the Nazi regime." But in general, it does an "admirable job of evoking the period and placing Owens in historical perspective" (ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH, 2/18). In S.F., Mick LaSalle writes the movie "gives us a complex picture of an America that had its own racial problems in 1936, as well as a flesh-and-blood portrait of Owens that leaves room for heroism but that also shows his lusts and temptations and a star athlete’s ego." This is a "profound saga that makes for a great American movie." The film "gets the big things right" (S.F. CHRONICLE, 2/19).
