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In this era of strife and economic struggles, it is at times difficult to remember the simple things in life and how one can often find fulfillment in places they never thought to look. In 1976 in a small football town in South Carolina, Coach Harold Jones (Ed Harris), is busy preparing his team for the coming season and as is his usual process, ignoring his wife and daughter for film studies and play design sessions. The town bonds over the weekly games during the fall, and Coach Jones is a liked and respected man.

Life for Coach Jones takes a turn when he discovers players from his team tormenting a slow, illiterate local boy whose only crime is pushing a shopping cart around town and picking up a stray football that sailed over the fence during a practice session. Disgusted and alarmed by the action of this group of players, Jones punishes them and invites the young man to come to practice to help out whenever he wants. Despite his communication issues, the young man named James (Cuba Gooding Jr.) starts to open to the coach and is able to communicate with far more ability then people had given him credit for. James is being raised by his loving and widowed mother who is at first weary of the coache’s intentions as people from his part of town do not often go out of their way to help a person of color, much less a disabled one.

It is discovered that aside from food, James has a real fondness for music and is soon given the nickname Radio due to his ever-present radio. Before long, Radio not only becomes a fixture on the team sidelines and practice sessions, but in the very classrooms and halls of the school despite the initial misgivings of the Principal (Alfre Woodard). Eventually misgivings seem to fade as the constant enthusiasm and desire to help endear Radio to many of those around him.

There are those in the town who are not found of this arrangement, however, and see Radio as a distraction to the team and the cause of a recent losing streak. As the season unfolds, some parents are concerned that the presence of Radio will undermine the chances for scholarships for certain athletes on the team setting up events for the remainder of the film.

While Radio is at times overly sentimental, the fine work by Harris and the Oscar-worthy performance of Gooding Jr. make the film well worth seeing. My biggest issue with the film would that it did not address enough of what Radio’s life was like after the events of the film. There is footage in the closing credits of the real radio and Coach Jones, and we are told that Radio is still a large part of the school and its athletic programs. What we do not know is how Radio supported himself over the years and what Coach Jones did after the concluding events of the film. 

Those factors aside, Radio is a moving film and a triumph for Cuba Gooding Jr. who shows that his first Oscar was not a fluke and that he is very gifted and capable actor. 

Gareth Von Kallenbach 10/29/2003

Before Denzel Washington won the Academy award for his performance in Training Day, Julia Roberts was quoted as saying that it was a strange world where she had an Oscar and Denzel didn't. I was reminded of that remark while I was watching Radio, a movie starring Cuba Gooding, Jr. (who has an Oscar) and Ed Harris (who doesn't).

Ed Harris stars as Coach Jones, a high school football coach in the football-mad town of Anderson, South Carolina. Cuba Gooding, Jr. is James Robert Kennedy, better known as Radio, a man with a severe learning disability who spends his day pushing a grocery cart around and avoiding all human contact. After Coach Jones notices several of his players playing a mean practical joke on Radio, Jones decides to adopt Radio as the team's mascot and teach his team about the virtues of tolerance and kindness.

First, of course, Jones has to get Radio to open up, something Radio hasn't done in years. Fortunately, all it takes are a few hamburgers, and he's talking a mile a minute. Psychologists the world over will want to take note of this new therapy. With Radio cheering the team on and then making announcements over the school p.a., uplift and happiness can't be far behind.

Of Radio's many problems, its view of the disabled is the most glaring. Why is it that, in the movies, the learning disabled/mentally ill are either homicidal maniacs or cuddly, friendly folk put on this earth to
amuse us? Radio obviously fits into the latter category, and Cuba Gooding, Jr.'s antics are designed to bring chortles from the audience, though it's the sort of patronizing laughter that Coach Jones chastises his team for.

The movie also lacks any kind of conflict. Sure, a selfish player with an even more selfish father is trotted out for our boos and hisses, but this conflict is secondary to the warm fuzzies being tossed around. I mean, the movie takes place in 1976 in South Carolina, and there isn't a hint of racial tension. And this is a movie "inspired by a true story." Then Coach Jones's wife caps the movie by saying, "It's never a mistake to care for someone. That's always a good thing." Now I'm not disagreeing with the sentiment, but the movie treats this as philosophy worthy of deep study, not the Hallmark-card aphorism it is. As with this sort of movie, the saccharine music (courtesy of James Horner) is omnipresent, manipulating the audience when absolutely no manipulation is needed.

Nonetheless, this movie might be worth seeing just for Ed Harris's brilliant performance. He commands the screen in the way only a true star can. The treacly dialogue he's forced to spout--"We didn't teach him, he taught us"--sounds compelling. And the story becomes watchable just to see how he'll respond to the various bumps in the road. Radio probably won't please many critics, so Harris's Oscar chances are unclear, but it is an award-worthy performance.

Cuba Gooding, Jr. also gives a nice, measured portrayal. It's a role that could've gotten ugly quick, but he keeps most of his exuberance in check. Kudos also go to Brent Sexton, as Assistant Coach Honeycutt, who takes the sidekick role and makes it his own. Alfre Woodard as Principal Daniels merely has to look thoughtful on occasion, but it's nice to see Woodard anyway.  

J. Robert Parks 11/4/2003