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Disney’s latest rags-to-riches film stars Mark Wahlberg as Vincent Papale, an underemployed Average Joe from South Philly who takes a chance and changes his life. After losing his teaching job, Vince picks up a few extra hours tending bar to try to make ends meet—but it’s the last straw for his wife, who’s tired of being married to a nobody with no money.
Meanwhile, the football season is approaching—and in a mid-seventies Philadelphia that’s struggling with closing factories and union strikes, football season is the only thing that Vince and his friends have to look forward to. Unfortunately, the Eagles haven’t been able to win many games lately. A new coach, Dick Vermeil (Greg Kinnear), is brought in from California to turn the team around—and, with him, he brings a few unconventional ideas.
When Vermeil announces that he’s holding open tryouts for the team, most of Philadelphia shows up. Vince, whose football experience is limited to a year in high school and years of playing with the guys from the bar, shows up, too—and he’s the only one at the tryouts to receive an invitation to training camp. As Vince battles his own demons and fights to prove himself to his coach and the rest of the team, he wins the admiration of all the other Average Joes in Philly—and the attention of his beautiful coworker.
Invincible isn’t really anything new—there are, after all, plenty of inspirational against-all-odds sports movies out there. But no matter how many of them you’ve seen—whether you’re a football fan or not—you’ll find it nearly impossible to keep yourself from getting caught up in this real-life story. It has all the heart you’d expect from a Disney movie—though it’s not quite as heavy on the fluff. And it actually feels real—so real that you’ll be able to feel every hit that Vince takes.
Wahlberg is believable and even irresistible as Papale. He’s a character you can get behind—and you’ll really want him to win in the end. Elizabeth Banks is a little too glamorous—and not New York enough—to play Janet, the beautiful new bartender in town, but the rest of the cast feels like they were pulled straight out of a bar in Philly.
Though it’s not unlike any movie you’ve seen before, Invincible is still better than average when it comes to the same old sports drama.
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