It should be known that this film was produced by NFL player, Tom Brady. As such, it's basically hagiography for him. Brady is considered the greatest football quarterback of all time. His 20-year career with the New England Patriots resulted in the team's six Super Bowl wins, tying as the most Super Bowl wins. The Patriots stand as the team with the most Super Bowl appearances. Brady has personally won Super Bowl MVP more times than anyone. Clearly, the man is skilled and talented. The hagiography is not totally unwarranted.
However, a large chunk of this film focuses on the real-life Super Bowl LI, which was played on February 5, 2017, in Houston, Texas. Arguably, this 2017 game was one of the most notable in recent history. It featured one of the largest comebacks in Super Bowl records, and it's the first and so far only Super Bowl to be decided in overtime.
A lot of the focus becomes on the game-play that yielded that comeback and the crucial events in that overtime. The film never really takes us too far into the trenches to analyze what was truly involved. Writers Emily Halpern and Sarah Haskins (Booksmart) take for granted that fans know a lot of it, so things are skipped over and we're just given the very broad strokes. We're led to believe that the match was won, not by strategy or whatever team interaction was required. No, the match was won due to one rousing speech from an octogenarian.
Lily Tomlin (Grace & Frankie and The West Wing) stars as Lou, an 80-year-old, cancer survivor who was diagnosed in the early 2000's around the time that Tom Brady started playing for the Patriots. She went through chemotherapy with her three friends who would watch Patriots games with her. Watching Brady and the Patriots bonded Lou and her friends through the cancer treatments. It thus became a tradition that Lou maintained for nearly 20 years. She currently seems to be in remission, but keeps the tradition going.
Now, in 2017, when Lou gets test results from the hospital, she worries that her cancer could be back. Presumably, she's tired of chemo and doesn't want the specter of death again. She decides to do what she can to take herself and her friends to Super Bowl LI, as possibly one last hurrah, if the worst occurs. Unfortunately, the film does the least dramatically with this premise as possible, as to render the idea mostly inert.
The rest of the film is watching Lou and her three elderly female friends attend the Super Bowl and have the so-called NFL experience. As such, Halpern and Haskins don't really craft a romp that is all that entertaining. The comedy is on the mild side, the very mild side. There aren't really overt jokes or gags that have any punch, which is sad because the supporting cast of Sally Field, Jane Fonda and Rita Moreno are certainly capable. Those three women need no introduction and have abilities more than extraordinary. All three women are in fact Oscar winners with Moreno being an EGOT-winner. Yet, these three legends feel wasted. The script really gives them nothing.
Leading up to Super Bowl LI, Tom Brady served a suspension due to the so-called "Deflategate." The NFL suspended Brady after an investigation into him and the New England Patriots who were accused of cheating by under-inflating their footballs. This comes less than ten years after the NFL fined the Patriots for spying on other teams. This film completely overlooks all of this. This of course goes to the hagiography on display here and having Brady as the producer. Yet, there could have been good drama mined from one of the women bringing it up and offering a differing opinion about Brady.
Most films about sports typically follow and root for the underdog. In this case, the underdog is the Atlanta Falcons. At least, they were the underdogs going into Super Bowl LI. Of course, die hard fans won't care, but dramatically, it's somewhat boring to be on the side of the Pats. Again, if one of the women in the cast had been on the side of the Falcons, it likely would have made the film more interesting from a narrative perspective.
Rated PG-13 for language, drug content and suggestive references.
Running Time: 1 hr. and 38 mins.
In theaters.
