McFARLAND, USA (Rated PG)
What do the films “Field of Dreams,” “Draft Day,” “For Love of the Game,” “Bull Durham,” and “The Upside of Anger” have in common? All of them star Kevin Costner and all except the last title are sports-themed entertainment.
I throw in “The Upside of Anger” if only because the implied notion of “anger” is part of a football coach’s story in the uplifting “McFarland, USA,” the latest inspirational sport drama that, based on a true story, definitely falls into the canon of Disney family films.
Kevin Costner is perfectly cast as Coach Jim White, first seen coaching high school football in Idaho before losing his job for angrily tossing a shoe at an insolent star player.
As such, White’s career fortunes are so limited he ends up moving his family to a small farming community in California’s Central Valley.
McFarland, located along Highway 99 north of Bakersfield, is a nondescript rural outpost that one would hardly notice while driving north to Fresno or points beyond.
A predominantly Latino community, McFarland advertises itself as the “Fruit Bowl of California.”
Moving his wife Cheryl (Maria Bello) and two children to McFarland, White and his family have an initial culture shock with respect to their new home.
In fact, one of the two daughters, noticing a vastly different landscape, asks “Are we in Mexico?”
As a matter of fact, the White family’s outsider status is readily apparent, but the coach wants to make the best of it.
Even the school principal (Valente Rodriguez) has initial doubts about his new physical education and life science teacher fitting in.
Moreover, White has his own qualms about being only the assistant football coach.
The Latino students don’t initially have much respect for the establishment authority figure that Coach White represents. At first, they call him “Blanco” and not as a term of endearment.
Recognizing that his players are not good at a team sport like football, White soon spots their true talent in running.
Without exception, the high school kids work hard alongside their parents picking fruit and vegetables in the vast farmlands of McFarland.
White observes that these farm kids have natural speed while running along dirt roads and through the fields to their after-school jobs.
The idea is born to create a cross-country team, a sport that’s more commonly associated with schools in more upscale communities like Palo Alto and Half Moon Bay.
But White persists in recruiting the Hispanic kids to join his team, causing them to grudgingly accept a new challenge.
Initially very reluctant to join any sports team, the troubled yet hardworking Thomas (Carlos Pratts) is wary of Jim White’s motives, believing that the coach does not understand the grim reality that defines the lives of migrant workers and their sons and daughters.
For his part, Coach White recognizes that Thomas, soon to become the star of the McFarland cross-country team, is a gifted, natural runner, and that his talent and leadership ability is a path to pride and accomplishment that might lift the kid out of the cycle of poverty and despair.
To bridge the cultural divide, White joins his students in the fields one fine morning, during the sweltering heat, to do the back-breaking work of gathering cabbages.
Gamely trying to keep up with the experienced farm hands, White begins to get some respect.
The story of “McFarland, USA” centers mostly on White’s putting together a team of seven runners who are willing to compete even though the high school doesn’t have a gym with fancy equipment and the kids don’t even have proper running shoes.
Aside from Thomas’ role as the lead runner, the one team member with the biggest heart but not the greatest speed is the chunky Danny (Ramiro Rodriguez), who makes a big impression for putting more effort into running even though he has no natural athletic talent.
Meanwhile, from accepting a neighbor’s gift of a live chicken to arranging a traditional Mexican 15th birthday coming-out party for his oldest daughter, White and his family become immersed in the cultural mores of their new hometown.
The path to cross-country glory, which begins in 1987, does not come easily. Pitted in races against more experienced runners, the McFarland track team, looking more like misfits than an organized unit, must overcome the snide remarks of opponents who don’t, at first, take them seriously.
The inspirational theme of “McFarland, USA” is a familiar one, fitting nicely into the genre of the uplifting triumph of the underdog story.
Kevin Costner’s Coach White may be the glue that holds this film together, but the heart and soul belongs to the seven young actors who make cross-country racing look really convincing.
With the track team overcoming many obstacles to win the state championship in 1987, “McFarland, USA” has the look and feel of the clichéd inspirational sports movie, but New Zealander director Niki Caro (“Whale Rider”) has managed to make the predictable source material an engaging, heartfelt entertainment.
Tim Riley writes film and television reviews for Lake County News.
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