McFARLAND, USA Review

With something like McFarland, USA you know exactly what you're getting into the moment you purchase a ticket. Still, McFarland is full of surprises and the big one here is that despite being an inspirational Disney sports movie based on a true story director Niki Caro (Whale Rider) and screenwriter Grant Thompson have garnered the genuine heart and real sense of community in this story and successfully brought it to the film adaptation. There is immediately a stronger aesthetic to the film than any of the more recent outings in this mini-genre that make the stories feel manufactured and the characters little more than archetypes. Everything from the titular location to the characters we should seemingly already know feel authentic in a way that garners an inherent respect for what is trying to be accomplished. To the point of going in and expecting one thing and getting more than you bargained for it is somewhat surprising, given his résumé, that Kevin Costner hasn't already starred in one of these Disney sports films and kind of unbelievable this story hasn't already been tapped for a feature film. I'm glad it hasn't and that Costner waited patiently for, despite his clear admiration for films around America's pastime, a film that makes good use of not only his persona, but the influencing factors of that persona. This adoration for baseball we associate with the actor allows him to fit perfectly into the mold needed for Coach Jim White. For as much as White is out of his depth in the city of McFarland we see the unease of Costner in returning to a genre that makes him feel at home. Just as Costner is trying to reinvigorate his career White is trying to figure out his life as a coach maybe not of the sport he knows best, but of the ones his particular pupils have a greater skill for. He is out of his depth, but he is willing to try and find something that reinvigorates his passion, just as the actor playing him is doing. McFarland, USA isn't really about Coach White though, but the community at large and reinforcing Costner's casting all the more is the fact he's a perfect surrogate for the majority of Americans into a world we think we understand well enough, but have no honest idea of.