Disney has really carved out a genre for itself: the underdog sports story as cultural melting pot, complete with the Middle American white coach/scout/father figure whose preconceptions are overturned by scrappy kids who overcome every hurdle with heart and hard work. That guy was Jon Hamm in Million Dollar Arm and Josh Lucas in Glory Road. In McFarland, USA, also inspired by a true story, he’s a high-school football coach whose temper has landed him at an underfunded school in a largely Mexican-American town in the California desert. “Are we in Mexico?,” his daughter asks, as they drive past sad little homes of cracked stucco and sun-parched dirt yards. It gets a laugh, but makes a point: This is a Third World neighborhood within our borders. For that I give the film some credit. It gives a big-screen face to an American culture generally relegated to the margins of mainstream movies. Too bad it belabors as many stereotypes as it challenges.
Kevin Costner plays Jim White (the film has fun with that one), who provides our perspective into McFarland. There White soon loses his football coaching position and creates a cross-country team. His prejudices and assumptions are mirrored right back at him by a glib coach from an affluent school, a nice moment that Costner handles with a mix of shame and self-reflection. As a coach, White sees the untapped speed and endurance of his Cougars; as a person, he’s got no idea of their real lives. This is, after all, a town where the prison is across the street from the high school to remind kids that it’s pretty much their only alternative to working the fields.
Director Niki Caro (Whale Rider) stirs Southwestern spices through the usual scrappy-little-team-that-could ingredients. The kids are types rather than characters with agency or aspirations. They run in sneakers that threaten to fall apart mid-stride. Coach White rides his daughter’s undersized Barbie-bike as a pace vehicle. There’s a quinceanera and a dancing chicken. There’s even a romance between the angry but earnest team star (Carlos Pratts, of the TV show The Bridge) and the coach’s teenage daughter—so chaste that it feels like a checklist tick from the screenwriter’s manual. Costner meanwhile delivers rousing pep talks as a mix of private conversation and earnest confessional. Otherwise the film favors easy sentiment over sociology. All these kids needed was someone who believed in them—preferably a flinty but compassionate white guy who can overcome his preconceptions in the process. Go, Cougs!
film@seattleweekly.com
MCFARLAND, USA Opens Fri., Feb. 20 at Majestic Bay, Kirkland Parkplace, and other theaters. Rated PG. 128 minutes.
