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By the summer of ‘76, Vince Papale (Mark Wahlberg) had just about bottomed-out. The 30 year-old, substitute schoolteacher had been laid-off and was working part-time at a neighborhood tavern, when his wife (Lola Glaudini) disappeared without notice. All she left behind was a nasty note in which she told her about to be ex-husband how much of a loser he was.
Then, while crying on the shoulder of his best friend, Max (Michael Rispoli), Vince saw a TV news report that the Philadelphia Eagles would be holding a tryout open to the public. Egged on by his buddy, he decided to give it a shot. If successful, he’d become the oldest rookie ever to enter the NFL, an amazing feat given that he never played a down of football in college. And it is this against-the-odds effort which is the subject of Invincible.
Unfortunately, this film takes too many liberties with the truth, rendering
Papale’s real-life story all but unrecognizable, reweaving it into a fractured fairy tale of improbable proportions. For instance, the movie makes it appear that Vince had never played organized football before the NFL, when he had, in fact, starred for two seasons with the Philadelphia Bell till the upstart World Football League folded in 1975.
If you are willing to ignore its revisionist history, Invincible is a cleverly-scripted, frequently-funny, feelgood flick, complete with a sweet storybook romance. Vince rebounds nicely from his bitter break-up with his wife when Max’s cute cousin, Janet (Elizabeth Banks), conveniently arrives in town.
Mating calls aside, the paint-by-numbers sports side of this picture is only likely to capture the imagination of kids under the age of ten unfamiliar with such formulaic fare. Anybody older has probably seen this tale told several times before, and more artfully executed.
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