Review: 42

by Trevor Kirkendall

★★★

Everyone should be familiar with the legend known as Jackie Robinson, the first African American baseball player to play on a Major League team. Such a legend, in fact, that all of baseball has retired his number. With the exception of New York Yankees closer Mariano Rivera, no one in the game of baseball will ever wear 42 ever again. Each Major League ballpark has number 42 hanging up along side the individual club’s own retired numbers. You’ll also see the number 42 on a baseball field is April 15, the anniversary of Jackie Robinson’s big league debut. In the Majors, that’s called Jackie Robinson Day, and every player in the ballpark that day will wear number 42. You can’t be more of a sports hero than that.

In the 1940s, professional baseball was segregated just like everything else in America. Black ball players played in the Negro League. This was where Jackie Robinson built his reputation.

“42” follows Robinson’s (Chadwick Boseman) career from the time Brooklyn Dodgers manager Branch Rickey (Harrison Ford) plucks him from the Negro League through his first season with the Dodgers in 1947. Rickey decides baseball is ready for a black man to join the league that has been exclusive to white ball players. He chooses Jackie Robinson not only because of his record, but because he believes Robinson has the guts to do this.

The film is essentially broken up into two acts. Biopics rarely seem to follow a three-act story structure, but it works well here. The first act is dedicated to Jackie’s times with the Montreal Royals, the International League affiliate of the Dodgers. He spent the 1946 season here preparing for his major league debut that would follow next season. It’s during this half we get to know his wife Rachel (Nicole Beharie) and sports writer Wendell Smith (Andre Holland). The film tries to show a true friendship form between Smith and Robinson, but ultimately fails to materialize as Smith’s role in the second act is relegated to almost obscurity.

The second act chronicles Jackie’s first year with the Dodgers in 1947. He seems to have a good working relationship with manager Leo Durocher (Christopher Meloni), who unfortunately doesn’t hang around for too long. The other players on the team are very apprehensive of Jackie’s presence in the locker, including future Hall of Famer Pee Wee Reese (Lucas Black). People from other ball clubs don’t seem to like Jackie being there, none worse than Phillies manager Ben Chapman (Alan Tadyk) who serves as one of the most vocal detractors. Tadyk’s role must have been tough, given that the majority of the film’s verbal abuse falls on his shoulders.

Overall, “42” follows a pretty standard biopic formula. Most people should already know how things unfold. Biopics generally want to chronicle a story or moment in history that is uplifting rather than disheartening.  Everyone should have some idea of what to expect.

Oscar winning writer/director Brian Helgeland (LA Confidential) doesn’t stray far from the successful formula that has worked on so many other movies in Hollywood’s history. The added humor throughout is very well placed and well timed. He seems to have enjoyed writing and directing the material during Jackie’s big league career more than the minor league scenes. The first act crawls along, and performances across the board are flat. Once we get to Brooklyn, the pace quickens and everything becomes much more interesting.

I haven’t seen Chadwick Boseman in anything else before this. This is an impossible role to play. Boseman does the best he can at bringing the legend to life. He only has a handful of scenes where he sells the stress and magnitude of what Jackie is actually doing. For a breakthrough performance, Boseman sure picked a tough one.

But its Harrison Ford who owns this movie. Whenever he is in a scene, everyone else seems to struggle trying to keep up with him. Its refreshing to see a role like this from someone as seasoned as him. Ford could play in any film he wants, and he choses to play a role with such depth, where his emotions lay only in his eyes, and in the cadence of his speech. This performance is nothing short of sensational. It’s a shame that Ford has never generated any kind of awards buzz in the past, especially for a man who has originated no less than two of cinema’s most iconic rolls. If ever there was a time for his peers to take notice, this is it.

Despite a long first hour and generic story formula,“42” does help us to recall a time in history that becomes more and more unbelievable the further we get away from it. Jackie Robinson’s presence on the baseball diamond changed the game forever. You don’t have to be a fan of baseball in order to appreciate what Jackie meant to the game. He equally meant it to the world.