In 2002, Dr. Bennett Omalu (Will Smith) performed an autopsy on former professional football player Mike Webster (David Morse). Webster had behaved irrationally for several years, hearing voices, self-harming, having violent outbursts, and ended up living in his car before dying at age 50. Omalu found nothing in his autopsy to explain this rapid descent and ordered a deeper examination into Webster's brain. He found evidence of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) and brought it to the attention of the Chair of Neuropathy at Columbia University, Dr. DeKosky (Eddie Marsan). DeKosky and Omalu co-authored an article for a medical journal, prompting Dr. Julian Bailes (Alec Baldwin) to reach out. Bailes was the team physician for the Pittsburgh Steelers and had grown alarmed at how many former players were dying young of suicide, early-onset Alzheimer's, and related conditions. Meanwhile, the National Football League, a hundred-billion dollar industry, had also read the article and were less friendly in their approach.
This is based on a true story. There is a Where Are They Now card before the end credits that tells you the NFL settled a lawsuit in 2011 on the condition they didn't have to disclose when or how long they knew about the prevalence of CTE among players.
The NFL is a fucking cancer that weaponizes and encourages the worst instincts of tribalism and Roger Goodell is a despicable human being, but really they're no different from any other corporation that feeds on human misery. You could swap Omalu with any whistleblower and basically tell the same story.
Anyway, this was directed by Peter Landesman and all of the highlighted sports clips are chosen and deployed with surgical precision. The story and especially the dialogue, however, is overwritten. I had the same kind of problem with the other Landesman film I've seen, Parkland. Concussion is more focused so he's moving in the right direction at least. Apparently he is also an investigative journalist for the New York Times, which explains a lot actually.
Gugu Mbatha-Raw is completely wasted in this. She has nothing to do and frankly, the entire romance sub-plot adds nothing to the story. All of her scenes could be cut and the film would be unchanged. Truly a disservice to a very good actress.
Concussion is currently only available to rent unless you have the internet and a VPN.
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