In 1961, Ernie Davis (Rob Brown) became the first African American to win the coveted Heisman Trophy. The two-time All-American running back was the driving force that helped the team win a National Championship, coach and tutor Ben Schwartzwalder (Dennis Quaid) marveling each and every step his star pupil and athlete took both on and off the gridiron.

Rob Brown carries the ball in Universal Pictures' The Express

I’m going to keep this one short and sweet. The Express is a finely made motion picture that covers all the highs, lows and tragic in-betweens of Davis’ life with authority and warmth. The film has an emotional honesty that’s impossible to dismiss, and by the time it was over I felt like I knew just about everything I needed to about both the man’s life and times as well as the indelible mark on the world of sports he carved still being felt today.

The problem is, I can’t get over the feeling I’ve seen this movie before. Repeatedly. Over and over and over again. Don’t get me wrong, as far as athletic biopics depicting this era of history are concerned this one gets high marks, they’re just the exact same ones picture’s like Brian’s Song, Remember the Titans and Glory Road have already covered ad nausea.

Granted, this one is certainly a better film than those latter two. Both Brown and Quaid are in top form, while director Gary Fleder (Runaway Jury) and writer Charles Leavitt (Blood Diamond), working from the biography by Robert Gallagher, interject a level of documentary-like clarity that’s refreshing and true. I just wish so much of it didn’t feel like high-gloss paint-by-numbers, and as good as some of the dramatics get the over-familiarity of it all can’t help but dilute the emotional payoffs to the point of insignificance.

Pity, because everything else about the movie is decidedly top-notch. Mark Isham’s (The Women) score is quietly dignified, Nelson Coates’ (School for Scoundrels) production design feels lived-in and true, Abigail Murray’s (upcoming Pride & Glory) costumes ooze authenticity and Kramer Morgenthau’s (Feast of Love) cinematography is smoothly intoxicating. Fleder directs with a far more carefully nuanced and confident hand than he has in the past, and at just about two hours the whole thing never comes close to overstaying its welcome.

I just ultimately didn’t care for it is all, and no matter how much I respected the effort and energy it took to bring this one to fruition for me it just never resonated any deeper than a respectful pat on the back. While Davis’ story is definitely worth talking about, in my opinion at least The Express is nothing more than a fast-moving locomotive to nowhere.

Additional Links: 

-  The Express Theatrical Trailer