'The Express' is flat-footed, lumbering
In real life, Ernie "The Express" Davis was a nimble, fleet-footed runner, a skill that helped him become the first African-American athlete to win the Heisman Trophy.
Unfortunately, "The Express," a heavily fictionalized account of Davis's all-too-brief life, is rather flat-footed, clumsy and lumbering.
It's an overlong, and by-the-numbers, episodic, biographical drama that leaves out some of the more crucial moments of Davis's life and football career, both in public school and in college.
Director Gary Fleder ("Runaway Jury") and screenwriter Charles Leavitt ("Blood Diamond") allegedly based the film on Robert Gallagher's biography, "Ernie Davis: The Elmira Express."
This version of events makes the case that Davis (played mostly by Rob Brown) was the product of a good upbringing, much of that attributable to his no-nonsense grandfather, Pops (Charles S. Dutton).
And high school success brought him to the attention of Syracuse University football coach Ben Schwartzwalder (Dennis Quaid), who was trying to find an athlete to replace his star running back, the legendary Jim Brown (Darrin Dewitt Henson).
The clunkily directed football scenes were clearly inspired by both the movie and television versions of "Friday Night Lights," but they are considerably less convincing.
And inexplicably, Fleder doesn't show any action from Davis's senior season at Syracuse — you know, the one for which he actually won the Heisman.
His directorial bungling puts a terrible burden on the appealing cast. Brown ("Take the Lead") and Quaid do what they can with this sketchy material, as do the always-watchable Dutton and Omar Benson Miller, who steals scenes as one of Davis' Syracuse teammates.
"The Express" is rated PG and contains strong scenes of violence (athletics, brawling and fisticuffs, and child-in-peril elements), racial slurs and other derogatory language, scattered profanity, glimpses of nude statues, and some brief sexual contact. Running time: 130 minutes.
E-mail: jeff@desnews.com
You can be the first to comment on this story.