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'When the Game Stands Tall': Annoying, dramatic paean to a football coach

This curious, cloistered film builds a dramatic shrine to Bob Ladouceur, the football coach who took De La Salle, a tiny all-boys Catholic school in northern California, on a decadelong unbeaten streak that reached 151 games.

Jim Caviezel (left) and Alexander Ludwig.
Jim Caviezel (left) and Alexander Ludwig.Read moreTRACY BENNETT

This curious, cloistered film builds a dramatic shrine to Bob Ladouceur, the football coach who took De La Salle, a tiny all-boys Catholic school in northern California, on a decadelong unbeaten streak that reached 151 games.

We don't get to see how Ladouceur (played by Person of Interest's Jim Caviezel) built and sustained his powerhouse program. Indeed, When the Game Stands Tall is rather short on training and coaching details.

Our story begins in 2004, the year the streak ended, the point seeming to be that a man's character is defined by how he faces adversity. When it comes to trials and tribulations, this movie is guilty of piling on.

Caviezel's coach takes losing with total equanimity. He never raises his voice. Not at any point in the film.

That's one of the annoying facets of When the Game Stands Tall. While the rest of the cast - Laura Dern as Caviezel's wife, Michael Chiklis as his assistant coach, Clancy Brown as a pushy parent, and Alexander Ludwig, Jessie Usher, Matthew Daddario, Ser'Darius Blain, Stephan James, and Joe Massingill as young players - are profligately overacting, Caviezel just gets quieter and more withdrawn.

The on-field action is exciting, including a highlight montage set to AWOLNATION's "Sail," but the script depends entirely too much on a succession of reporters, announcers, and spectators to provide context and detail in clunky, implausible dialogue. ("Lanear has been playing both ways, and he is exhausted.")

It's insidious the way the film progressively slips in more and more religious material. We move from Caviezel instructing his kids in Scripture to his anguished sermon at a funeral, to the whole team kneeling together before the climactic game to recite the Lord's Prayer.

When the Game Stands Tall is more manipulative than a hulking chiropractor. It's so busy beatifying its protagonist that it makes him into a grave idol rather than a man.

When the Game Stands Tall *  1/2 (out of four stars)

Directed by Thomas Carter. With Jim Caviezel, Laura Dern, Alexander Ludwig, Michael Chiklis. Distributed by TriStar Pictures.

Running time: 1 hour, 55 minutes.

Parent's guide: PG (violence, smoking).

Playing at: Area theaters. EndText