FOREVER STRONG ***
Produced by: Ryan Little
Written by: David Pliler
Starring: Sean Faris, Gary Cole, Neal McDonough, Sean Astin
Length: 2 hours

OREM — "Forever Strong" is an enjoyable watch, one of those movies that picks you up and takes you for a nice ride without any serious suffering.

So it can be forgiven for having a predictable conclusion and final score. (Just once, it might be fun to see the favored team lose by half a point.)

The characters are strong, the story is compelling and well thought out, the filming is powerful and it works. The music is sweeping and upbeat.

Even for someone who cares little about the brutal game of rugby, this is a movie worth watching and talking about.

There are also some good lessons here about drinking and driving, harboring hostility and learning to forgive and to "listen right."

Sean Faris as Rick Penning is a pretty good Tom Cruise-like lead who hangs onto his "I hate everybody" attitude for a respectable length of time and comes around at just about the right speed. He and his driven-to-win-at-whatever-cost father (Neal McDonough) have a somewhat cliched relationship, but it's still interesting.

His relationships with the detention center counselor (Sean Astin) and the legendary Highland Rugby team's coach (Gary Cole) are turning points and come across wonderfully real when they could become cardboard.

Astin (from "The Lord of the Rings" fame), McDonough and Cole (based on true-life Highland Rugby coach Larry Gelwix) make more than cameo appearances and lend some nice credibility to the film.

In addition, there's some very nice humor worked in as Faris cleans toilets each time he acts out and his teammates and counselors teach him about brotherhood and being a true champion.