A sentimental cross between “Forest Gump” and “Remember the Titans,” “Radio” constantly flirts with the fine line between excessive mawkishness and heartwarming poignancy, thankfully staying within the rare realm where tears are less jerked than gently tugged.
Based on a 1996 “Sports Illustrated” article that documented the life of James “Radio” Kennedy (Cuba Gooding, Jr., “Jerry Maguire”), “Radio” is the mostly true story of a young man whose mental handicap is undiagnosable. He wanders along train tracks in the backwoods of Anderson, South Carolina, occasionally pushing a shopping cart by the local high school’s field during football season, with his transistor radio always close at hand.
Coach Harold Jones (Ed Harris, “The Truman Show”) invites the shy character to help out with practices after stumbling upon some of his varsity athletes hazing Kennedy. Jones then gradually integrates him into T. L. Hanna High School.
But for a handful of minor conflicts, over which the film wisely chooses to not obsess, “Radio” has no serious overriding tension. Rather, the movie simply follows the growth of Kennedy as he regains comfort with other human beings and the parallel maturity of a small southern town that progressively overcomes its prejudices to accept the young man.
The story of Anderson’s social evolution is similar to “Remember the Titans,” another mostly true tale about high school football in the 1970s and its social power in towns where the varsity squad’s schedule is posted on the barbershop’s walls. Harris is as powerful here as Denzel Washington was in his much-acclaimed role as Coach Boone, with Harris delicately interweaving the fiery passion of a coach who cares about his athletes, the gentler passion of a father who cares about his family, and the philanthropic passion of a mentor who cares about Kennedy.
Opposite Harris, in a patently challenging role, Gooding creates an aptly charismatic Kennedy. The part has few spoken lines and instead depends on body language, something with which Gooding seems perhaps too comfortable. His motions are frequently too exaggerated, and his mannerisms are on occasion too overstated. But the actor, wearing a cloyingly oversized grin, takes a few cues from Dustin Hoffman in “Rain Man” and Tom Hanks in “Forest Gump” — both far more legendary roles than Gooding’s Kennedy has the potential to be — and succeeds in conveying the necessary image of a poor young man whose heart overshadows his mind.
S. Epatha Merkerson is disappointing, however. Best known for delivering strong performances over the past decade as Lt. Van Buren on television’s “Law & Order,” she comes up short as Kennedy’s hard-working mother. Merkerson is as unrealistically flat here as Oprah Winfrey was as Sethe in “Beloved,” serving to betray the emotional nature of a handful of scenes that could have served to further develop the multidimensional characters of Kennedy and Jones.
The most intricate character is Anderson, South Carolina. “Radio” is the story of a town that lives vicariously through its high school football team and the values that fall victim to Friday night pep rallies. It would be easy to dismiss Anderson as the sort of mock-up Hollywood town “Pleasantville” so deftly mocks, and the setting does have some of those overblown stereotypes — like the villainous father who is also the town banker. But Anderson really is one of those southeastern communities where high school football dominates barbershop chatter, and the streets empty out for Friday’s big game, something “Radio” demonstrates by including documentary footage at the end of the film.
With that credit-accompanying look at the real Kennedy and Jones should come a few audience tears and moments of reflection, sure signs of a stellar work of poignant cinema.
Grade: A/B
