Sometimes we all need a reminder of how beautiful the world can be, how beautiful life can be. Every now and then, a movie comes along that captures this beauty and makes you want to go out and change the world. Radio falls into that category.
It only took a few glances across the football field between Ed Harris and Cuba Gooding Jr. and I was already getting all touched and stuff. Even the opening sequence with the train is a gorgeous sight, and whoever had a hand in composing the music definitely knew what they were doing.
Cuba Gooding Jr. is not an actor with whom I am startlingly familiar, but his performance here is outstanding. There is a very fine line one has to walk when playing a character with mental difficulties, and not once does Gooding ever appear to think that he's better than the character he's playing -- he is James Robert Kennedy, a.k.a. "Radio". Starting out as the boy who pushes a grocery cart around the city, Radio becomes a friend to everyone he meets, stranger or not. All he needs is someone to open up their eyes...
And so we have Ed Harris, playing the head football coach Harold Jones. (Wild, 'cause I used to know a guy named Harold with similar impediments as Radio) Coach Jones loves football, perhaps moreso than he should, as you can tell right off the bat that his family feels neglected. Ed uses the far-off look in his eyes to great advantage here, seemingly always in the midst of a critical decision. But as with most coaches, he has a temper and when he catches nine of his football players throwing balls at a shed with Radio locked inside, he gives them hell for it. Ed Harris is no less than remarkable here, as one would expect. It's one thing to expect, on a scale of one-ten, maybe a 5 and end up getting a 7. With Ed Harris you expect a 9 and you get a 10.
Brent Sexton takes on a minor role as the assistant coach, this nice fat guy (aren't fat guys always nice though?) whose most memorable scene is when he shares his fast food with Radio early in the movie.
Debra Winger also takes on a lesser role as Coach Jones' wife Linda, and while she is not as deeply explored as she might have been, she does get in some great lines -- "Save some of that unsportsmanlike conduct for tonight!" she tells him after one of the more grueling games. Sarah Drew plays Jones' daughter; it should be against the law for girls to be that pretty. Damn. Her character does have a bit of a role in having to walk the line between being jealous of the attention her father gives to Radio, and being understanding of all that Radio has been deprived of in his life. There is an extraordinarily touching scene toward the end that resolves this conflict, in which Coach Jones says to her, "I'm gonna tell you something I've never told anyone before," and pours his heart out with a sad, sad sad sad sad story from his past.
Alfre Woodard is one of the most convincing high school principals you'll ever see (I get flashbacks of the 1990 Oprah). S. Epatha Merkerson is notably heart-grabbing as Radio's mother, who works twelve and sixteen hours at a time at the hospital to make ends meet. By the movie's end, part of me wanted to scream "For God's sake, BE CAREFUL on the holidays!!!"
Radio spans a good length of time, almost a year in fact. So it kind of goes without saying that a lot is going to happen. You got football season coming and going, basketball season coming and going, Christmas coming and going, and of course, graduation. The Christmas scenes in the movie are some of the best parts -- Jones (and the city) give a great show of generosity to Radio, and what does he do? He goes around his neighborhood leaving some of his gifts on everybody's front porch. A cop comes along and completely ruins the mood, but do not worry, this is used to great comedic effect minutes later.
So I'm pretty horrible at remembering trailers, but I kept thinking that somewhere along the line, Radio was actually going to play in one of the games. I don't know what had me thinking that, but if you thought the same, well, he doesn't. And that's fine, it doesn't detract from the movie's message at all. (Besides, that would be pretty cliche anyay.)
If you're worried about violence, don't. The worst that happens is when the cop puts Radio up against the car to handcuff him, and then the scene I mentioned earlier where Radio is locked in the shed and they're throwing footballs at it. In both cases, the "abusers" get their comeuppance (and Radio gets more french fries).
Maybe I didn't leave the theater with a whole lot more hope for a change in the world than I had walking in, but I did feel more hope for a change in myself. Isn't that really what it's about?
The true story of a high school football coach who mentors a mentally challenged boy that no one understands. When the coach allows the young man to h...More at HotMovieSale.com
Set in South Carolina and spanning almost 40 years time beginning in the 1960s RADIO is the moving story of the friendship between a mentally disabled...More at Family Video
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