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“American Underdog,” adapted from the quarterback’s same-titled memoir, has a distinct, at times kooky vibe that’s appealing, even if its cause-and-effect narrative doesn’t explain how Warner managed to enter the National Football League from outside the usual channels, and at a much older age than was typical. Simply put, the film makes it appear as if Warner went from being an undrafted free agent to playing arena ball for the St. Louis Rams and winning Super Bowl XXXIV based on being a decent and devout guy who treats his loved ones well and does the tedious, necessary work of daily life even when he doesn’t feel like it. If that were the case, professional sports teams around the world would be staffed entirely by nice, caring people, many of whom are out of shape.
It doesn’t matter. “American Underdog” was adapted and directed by Andrew and John Erwin, who is known for making very successful films for the American Christian market (such as “Mom’s Night Out” and “I Can Only Imagine”), which explains the focus and messaging. This is a film about virtue, commitment, and faith, and how if you possess and diligently maintain those qualities, good things will happen to you, if not right away, then eventually. Also, you must try to play this American Underdog Quiz.
American Underdog Quiz
Although “American Underdog” doesn’t skimp on football action—there are several grandiose sequences—the focus is on Kurt (Zachary Levi) and his future wife Brenda (Anna Paquin). They meet in the early 1990s when Kurt is working at a grocery store and sending VHS highlight reels to recruiters, and Brenda, an Army veteran, is raising her legally blind, brain-damaged son, Zack (Hayden Zaller), after being abandoned by her cheating husband. The early focus is on Kurt and Brenda’s budding relationship, and surprisingly, that’s where it stays.
Levi and Paquin are too old to play the characters convincingly at this point in their lives (Levi is 41, Paquin is 38), and they’ve been fitted with unflattering wigs, but their chemistry is excellent and they’re both exceptional actors, so it’s easy to look past that. The film’s greatest strength is its refusal to conform to the prescribed rhythms of the standard-issue sports film. It prefers to focus on what’s going on off the field from start to finish. It returns to the gridiron only when it’s time to set up the next career milestone, and the milestones are only important because they affect Kurt, Brenda, and Zack’s lives. “American Underdog” is about a couple growing up, getting to know each other, and looking out for each other. This approach to sports films may be unique. The genre frequently reduces the hero’s partner to a supportive figure on the sidelines (or a constantly crying person who wants him to stop playing for health reasons).
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Early on, there’s a nice, long scene in which Kurt, who met Brenda at a local honky-tonk club, arrives at her house to deliver a single red rose only to discover that she isn’t there. Zack invites him in, taking his hand in his. Brenda’s mother, who lives nearby, discovers Kurt and Zack lying side by side on the kitchen floor (because Zack wants them to). She jokes that he must be here to see Brenda, and she isn’t worried about him being an intruder because why would an intruder lie on his back on the kitchen floor next to a blind child? The scene is so bizarre (in a good way) that it can only have happened in real life, and there are many more like it, including one set during an icy winter in which the family’s car runs out of gas on an interstate highway and Kurt has to abandon them and walk for several miles to fill a gas can and walk it all the way back. What has this got to do with football? Nothing, but it’s the kind of thing that happens all the time and is never depicted in films.
The problem is that “American Underdog” never really connects Kurt and Brenda’s modest virtuousness to Kurt’s ascension as a quarterback. The focus on the central relationship distinguishes the film from other sports films, and you could even argue that you could make the exact same movie about a man who drove a bus or managed a shoe store and went on to win bus driver of the year or shoe store manager of the year, provided you could get the funding for a movie like that (a big “if”). However, if the point is that this person entered the profession and became a huge success despite not being the type of person who normally gets within shouting distance of such a dream, you’d still need to give audiences a sense of the qualities that allowed him to break through, other than repeating over and over, “He was a nice guy who believed in God and was good to his girlfriend and her son.”
For more personality and trivia quizzes check this: The King’s Man Quiz