McFarland, USA Review

Cast:

Kevin Costner as Jim White

Ramiro Rodriguez as Danny Diaz

Carlos Pratts as Thomas Valles

Johnny Ortiz as Jose Cardenas

Rafael Martinez as David Diaz

Hector Duran as Johnny Sameniego

Sergio Avelar as Victor Puentes

Michael Aguero as Damacio Diaz

Maria Bello as Cheryl White

Morgan Saylor as Julie White

Elsie Fisher as Jamie White

Diana Maria Riva as Senora Diaz

Omar Leyva as Senor Diaz

Valente Rodriguez as Principal Camillo

Danny Mora as Sammy Rosaldo

Rigo Sanchez as Javi

Directed by Niki Caro

Review:

Following a fallen high school football coach building a new life and a cross-country team from scratch in the poor farming community of McFarland, USA, this ‘based on a true story’ is a refreshingly optimistic look at how Latino-American and classic WASP culture can come to a rapprochement as opposed to a clash. Unfortunately, it is also hamstrung by the great curse of the inspirational sports film – prioritizing its message above its story.

The screenplay by Bettina Gilois (Glory Road), Christopher Cleveland and Grant Thompson batters anything out of its way that might interfere with said message, which includes a lot of the elements of what we would call the real world and actual human beings. It becomes about the message rather than the movie and forgets Marshall McLuhan’s adage that they are the same thing. Reminding us that we all share the common bonds of humanity, regardless of our background, is a good thing but does not in and of itself constitute a narrative.

The result is a story held fast in the traditional sports film structure as White realizes he can make a place for himself in this new world, and for his students in the old, by turning a group of individualist outsiders into a team through the glory of sport, and a cast stuck with it like flies in amber. With one or two exceptions, the young actors making up the team are one-dimensional sketches given a patina of depth but no chance for real exploration or growth because that might complicate the message.

Team captain Thomas (Pratts) makes lot of early noise about the anguish of his teen sister becoming pregnant, but by mid-film he has stopped talking about her (who we never meet) altogether. And he is the most well-developed of a team who barely change from their initial introductions: Victor is always the vain one who doesn’t try enough, the Diaz’s are always the brothers who pick in the fields, and Danny is always the fat one.

New Zealand director Niki Caro made a splash in the US a decade ago with Whale Rider and North Country proving she knows how to get strong, natural performances from young actors, but here the world is shown only through the eyes of Coach White. It’s not enough to see the Diaz brothers woken up each morning at 4 AM to go pick in the fields before school, White must go out and experience it for himself before it is assumed real for the audience. Costner knows exactly how to deliver the goods in this kind of film and he works hard at it – reluctantly embracing his role as a father figure though he has no idea how to go about it – but it’s impossible to shake the idea we’re focusing on the wrong person.

It’s a feeling amplified by Caro’s constant wallowing in many of the clichés on tap – setting them up so that they might be knocked over later – but for all the temporary joy that creates, it also underlines all of the chances McFarland, USA refuses to take. When the Whites first arrive in town, they are soon given front seats to a chorus of low-riders bouncing down main street, urging them to escape from the ‘Mexican gang culture.” Soon enough we learn that Javi (Rigo Sanchez) and his group are more interested in showing off their cars than crime and have an appreciated place in the local neighborhood focused on the hard-working, family-loving picking community – a community that will accept the Whites as they are – but it’s impossible to ignore just how ugly his introduction was.

Only Diaz matron Diana Maria Riva manages to rise above it, stealing every scene as a hard-working head of household who suffers no fools and knows exactly where the priorities of life should lay. Priorities White challenges when he takes the team on the road to the state finals despite their relative inexperience, a road which could potentially open up doors his students had never considered before. His good intentions and lack of awareness quickly run into the twin walls of his students’ real lives – filled with manual labor offering little time for anything else – and the family at home he is ignoring in favor of his ambitions.

Because this is a very traditional sports film, anyone who is even vaguely aware of the genre will know how these conflicts resolve themselves, which robs the film of suspense. And because it is of the family-friendly variation – one with all of the rough edges sanded off and whitewashed in order to present the easiest possible version of a difficult story – it is frequently robbed of drama as well.

Characters make note of the fact that the local prison is built next door to the high school – underlining how many graduates make the transition directly from one to the other – but then erase all evidence of such darker elements. At least until one opportune moment which is less about creating a real world reminder of the obstacles White and his students must overcome and more about playing up the notion of McFarland as eutopos. It’s too little, too late in a film too busy trying to be inspirational to manage anything else.

There’s nothing wrong with a film that sets out first and foremost to be inspirational. Neither is there anything negative about a willingness to look at the hardships of Latino life and remind us what these people who are so easily denigrated as invaders are actually doing.

But there’s nothing which says that can’t be done through the context of an engaging narrative populated by interesting characters (see Chris Weitz’s superior A Better Life for such an example). It’s not difficult to evoke an emotional response from an audience if that’s all you’re trying to do, but such directness doesn’t always intersect well with complex themes.

The strength of the cast and the underlying message (overwhelming as it may be) are actually positive enough to deliver real emotion to McFarland,USA, but they also highlight all of the missed opportunity.