Stars: 4 out of 5

Coach Gary Gaines has a sign above his desk that says in clear black and white: ‘Be perfect.’

He stresses this to his team at the end of the first practice of the season and in the locker room at halftime of its final game. The players, 17-year-olds holding coveted spots on the revered high school football team in a pressure-cooker of a West Texas town, repeat it to each other mockingly but with an implicit understanding of its moral worth.

It is frustrating that ‘Friday Night Lights’ could not learn the same lesson.

The film succeeds wildly in telling the compelling personal tales of the players, boys who lead the hopes and dreams of their elders. A quarterback who lives only to please his unstable mother, a backup running back who can’t escape the shadow (or violent criticism) of his alcoholic father and a team superstar who has his eyes so firmly set on professional football that he really can’t help but fail.

But in the homestretch, when ‘Lights’ needs it the most, the film takes its eye off the ball. Prior to this, it realizes the only reason we care about the outcome of these games is because we care about the players. In a way, a viewer assumes the role of parents who know nothing of the sport their son is playing. It doesn’t matter what happens, as long as the boys are happy.

So when the film becomes a football movie, as opposed to a story of football players, and focuses more on plays and highlights and less on the emotion growth of the athletes we have become attached to, we can’t help but feel disappointment.

Even with its flaws, the reason these characters are so identifiable is because of the suburban acting from principles Billy Bob Thornton (‘Bad Santa,’ ‘Sling Blade’), Derek Luke (‘Antoine Fisher’) and Lucas Black (‘Cold Mountain’), who play roles that are normally fraught with more clichs then a Lifetime movie.

Thornton should be especially commended for walking a fine line between harsh disciplinarian and understanding teacher where many of his talented contemporaries (Al Pacino, Jon Voight) have only served as one-dimensional, red-faced screamers. Luke’s role as a hotshot destined for greatness who tears his ACL early in the season should stand as a sterling example for athletes of any level that investing in an education is never a bad idea.

‘Friday Night Lights’ is produced by Brian Grazer, who also developed the Eminem vehicle ‘8 Mile.’ The two films bear a striking resemblance to each other both in cinematography and tone, but, maybe because ‘8 Mile’ was a strictly personal tale, that film was able to keep everything inside of the main character’s head without getting overly distracted by the act of freestyle rapping itself.

It is a real shame this movie couldn’t have followed that playbook to perfection.

Published on October 7, 2004 at 12:00 pm