The 5th Quarter

5/10 E.M.
4/10 C.E.

  For those of you who are about to go into this movie thinking that it is an inspirational football movie I'm gonna save you a lot of disappointment and let you know that it flat out isn't. This isn't We are Marshal nor is it by any means Remember the Titans. However this said the movie is actually a semi inspiring drama about getting up when life beats you down with a football backdrop. The main focus of this movie is dealing with death not by any means a focus on how one boy's death inspired a football team to a huge victory. I want to make it clear though that although that's not it's focus it does encompass the football victory and there is definitely plenty of football game content ect.

  As far as the acting in the film is concerned this really was a double edged sword being both great and bad sometimes in the same actor/actress. Ryan Merriman who played the son/brother Jon was quite truly impressive not coming across as overacting and accurately portraying a brother in pain as one would no doubt be in the same situation. Aidan Quinn was easily the most inconsistent as far as nailing his part as the father in the movie. There were plenty of times when his obvious show of remorse was spot on and realistic however the problem was that there were also times when it comes off as inauthentic and more importantly too much/over the top. This carries on throughout the whole movie and doesn't just apply to when he is showing sorrow and the like but also sometimes even joy. Andie MacDowell does a good job of showing us how a mother in such a situation would deal although by no means is she spectacular. The other characters were done well enough by the actors/actresses that played their parts however none were really either exceptional nor abysmal considering there were few characters that had any screen time besides those reviewed.

  The movie sadly has a few holes in it and you cannot help but feel that some parts were glanced over.Worse is that we often saw parts and heard dialogue that was strategically cut to portray the image desired rather than tell the story. Many and I do mean many of the football scenes were highly uninspired giving us just the highlights of the game along with what seemed to be or what was hoped to look like the original game footage which only caused it to feel even more disjointed. In the end the football scenes felt far more like a highlight reel on a coach's season slide show that showing us the struggles victories or even simply the games played on the field.

  The story is based on a true story so there's no possible way to bash or praise the plot. What was highlighted however and how it was portrayed did tell the story well as far as the Abbate's families struggle. The soundtrack was painfully obvious in taste and style however it does it's job despite the fact that I don't think I ever heard a single one of those songs before nor would I now like to hear them again. Sadly the film just doesn't hit it's target audience or at least the audience that will go will not get what they thought they were in for. When the game is played, the last seconds are on the clock and if you want a good story you'll have one but you probably won't want to play The Fifth Quarter