12 Mighty Orphans

Based on true events, 12 Mighty Orphans follows Depression-era math and science teacher Rusty Russell (Luke Wilson) as he attempts to transform a group of ragtag orphans into a winning football team. It’s familiar subject matter that is, for the most part, employed to sluggish and uninvolving effect by filmmaker Ty Roberts, as the filmmaker, working from a script written with Lane Garrison and Kevin Meyer, delivers a slow-moving drama that contains few elements designed to capture and sustain the viewer’s interest – with the arms-length atmosphere compounded by an often disastrously overlong running time and general absence of compelling, fully-fleshed-out characters. (Wilson is competent yet bland as the earnest protagonist, while the aforementioned orphans are predominantly interchangeable.) And although the picture admittedly does boast a handful of stirring sequences, including a hackneyed yet compelling moment wherein Rusty inspires his players with a rousing speech, 12 Mighty Orphans builds towards a climactic big game that’s hardly as engrossing or involving as Roberts has surely intended – which ultimately does cement the movie’s place as an exceedingly well-meaning misfire that doesn’t even come close to justifying its almost two hour runtime. (It’s difficult, at least, to understate the effectiveness of Wayne Knight’s gleefully over-the-top, scenery-chewing turn as the orphans’ mustache-twirling superintendent.)

** out of ****