The Farrelly brothers reigned over shady comedies in the 1990s and 2000s (“Dumb and Dumber,” “There’s Something About Mary,” “Shallow Hal,” “Stuck on You”), but while Peter has moved on to The industry’s biggest success, winning the Oscars for Original Screenplay and Best Picture for his film “Green Book,” Bobby hasn’t directed a movie in a long time. He returns with his “Kingpin” star, Woody Harrelson, in the sports comedy “Champions,” an English-language remake of the Goya Award-winning 2018 Spanish smash hit “Campeones.”
Harrelson plays Marcus, a minor league basketball coach who is sentenced to community service after a drunk driving accident and finds himself coaching a team of adults with intellectual disabilities at a local community center in Des Moines, Iowa. Given the With Farrelly’s track record of dabbling in more outlandish or offensive comedies, one might be preparing for what “Champions” might offer, but after some initial forgery, Farrelly, Harrelson, and writer Mark Rizzo deftly thread “Champions” together. For the most part, it’s warmly funny without dipping too far into the maudlin or honeyed realm; and avoid anything insensitive while enjoying a bit of raunchy humor.
You might also be thinking, “Isn’t this ‘The Mighty Ducks’?” — the 1992 kids’ sports comedy with Emilio Estevez as a lawyer who is sentenced to community service after a drunk driving accident and has to coach a Minneapolis pee-wee hockey team — and yes, it’s basically the same story . The grumpy coach who has a hard time connecting with people finds himself opening up to his unlikely teammates and learning to love the game again, thanks to the players, not despite them. The story does not deviate from the traditional formula of sports cinema that we know so well.
What helps animate “Champions” is what coach Marcus himself animates: the team, called the Friends, which is made up entirely of actors with disabilities similar to those of their characters. Some are veteran actors, some were cast from their experience as Special Olympics athletes, and some make their screen debut in the movie. One of the standouts, Kevin Iannucci, plays Johnny, whose older sister Alex (“It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” star Kaitlin Olson) becomes a love interest for Marcus. The pair go from one-night stand on Tinder to reluctant allies to friends with benefits when Marcus takes over the team, but Alex’s pointed, self-protective humor and Marcus’s ambition to flee Iowa to get a job at the NBA puts the appropriate obstacles to their romance. .
The plot also draws heavily from traditional romantic tropes, with Marcus as a stern fighter who finds himself charmed (and unfrozen) by the quirky residents of a small town, a surprisingly steamy attraction, and, of course, the players he trains. . It’s not groundbreaking storytelling, but it’s effective: there’s a reason these tropes exist.
“Champions” doesn’t break any mold, narratively or aesthetically, and it’s too long, but what sets it apart is the Friends, which deliver warm, nuanced performances and excellent representation of the largely ignored disability community. measured on film or relegated to inappropriate jokes or condescending stereotypes. Farrelly and Rizzo, working from the “Champions” source material, and the actors, offer an account of these characters and their lives filled with responsibilities, relationships and joy. When Coach Marcus shows up, he’s just the icing on the cake. They were champions before he came along, and the movie is his journey to realize that.
Katie Walsh is a film critic for Tribune News Service.
‘Champions’
Classified: PG-13, for strong language and rude/sexual references
Execution time: 2 hours, 3 minutes
Playing: Starts March 10 in general release
