Starring: Chadwick Boseman, Harrison Ford, Nicole Beharie
In 1946, Branch Rickey (Ford), manager of the baseball team, the Brooklyn Dodgers, hit upon the controversial idea of recruiting an African-American, who at the time only played in black-only teams with their own league. Recruiting a promising young player, Jackie Robinson (Boseman), Jackie encounters hostility and racism from both the fans and fellow players, even his teammates.
A film about the early Major League Baseball career of Jackie Robinson is a hard sell in many places outside of North America. A iconic name in both baseball and in the Civil Rights movement, Robison's name has less note outside of the US,as in many places, does the sport of baseball, itself. This definitely works against 42 as the film doesn't take it easy on audiences who don't know a great deal about the sport during the actual sequences of play and unfolding of backstage politics. However, as a dramatic piece, 42 is a perfectly good film. The film is less about baseball and more about race-relations in that period of America and hits that point home ably thanks to a strong dramatic script and a lead performance from Chadwick Boseman. The supporting cast also work well, even if Harrison Ford (as good as he is) feels a little miscast, at least physically, as Branch Rickey.
The evocative use of period details gives the film a sense of warmth and character even if the film teeters at times towards too much sentimentality. This aside, 42 is an admirable film very competently handled.
Next time, Lake Bell directs and stars in In A World, paving the way as a female voiceover artist for film trailers, a largely male profession.
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