3 CHICAGO TRIBUNE MOVIES SECTION7A By Tasha Robinson Special to the Tribune Director David M. Evans opens Final with a warning shot across the bow: a sleepy montage of Iowa cornfields, big blue Midwestern skies and would-be coach Kent Stock of the hobbit Sean Astin) beaming at country kids practicing their back-yard baseball moves. Viewers who flee the intrusively uplifting soundtrack and choking sentiment get just what that opening promised: a by-the-numbers, based-in-reality inspirational sports movie, thick with overwhelming pride and nostalgia for small-town farmland America. Final breaks from tradition only in that its protagonists, the Norway Tigers, are 19-time state-championship winners: In most sports movies, be the team the ragtag underdogs have to pull together to beat. But standing in the way of their 20th trophy is a heartless, numbers-driven school board trying to fold Norway into a larger school district, gutting the 500-person community and disbanding its beloved Tigers.
This sits poorly with revered local coach Jim Van Scoyoc Powers Boothe), so the board replaces him with inexperienced newcomer Kent, hoping a big Norway loss will kill the resistance. Naturally, Kent has other ideas. But Final only partly focuses on him and his team. packed with subplots; everybody on screen has a story. A rebellious Chicago teen finds redemption through team spirit.
Junior school-board member Polly Hudson (Rachael Leigh Cook) struggles with the ethics of the school-district merger. The pitcher lacks team confidence, and the janitor has health problems. Even the kid singing the National Anthem at the big state game gets her own sympathetic POV shots and her own post-performance proud moment with her father. a protagonist, if only for a few minutes. The egalitarian approach keeps film as full as a movie based on real events should be and lets him gloss over some of the most threatening cliches, like the unlikely romance between Kent and Polly.
But it also leaves the film shallow and crowded, with lazy school- board head is practically a mustache-twirling, cackling film-serial no central focus except syrupy sentiment. The climactic baseball game does crackle with nail-biting energy; Evans cut his teeth on and its sequel, and he stages the sports scenes with effective snap and hustle. But the 90-minute lead-up is full of hokey sentiment and unearned gushiness. At least Evans was gracious enough to warn everyone well in advance. MPAA rating: PG (for language, drug references, and smoking).
Perpetual champion coach Jim Van Scoyoc (Powers Boothe, left) gets replaced by inexperienced newcomer Kent Stock (Sean Astin) in Final Final Directed by David Mickey Evans; screenplay by Art sandro and James Grayford; photographed by Daniel Stoloff; edited by Harry Keramidas; music by Nathan Wang; production design by Chester Kaczenski; produced by Michael Wasserman, Steven Schott, Tony Wilson, D. Parker Widemire and Herschel Weingrod. A Yari Film Group release; opens Friday. Running time: 1:53. Kent Astin Jim Van Boothe Mitch Angarano Polly Leigh Cook Burt Arnold REVIEW Sports cliches strike out overstuffed MOBILE USERS FOR SHOWTIMES TEXT DARJEELING AND YOUR ZIP CODE TO 43 KIX (43549) CALLTHEATREOR SEEDIRECTORYAD FORSHOWTIMES.
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