This is going to be a somewhat unusual review for me as I am not going to be wildly enthusiastic about this film! The story..of how a coroner discovered the damage that is done to the brain of professional football players, the tragic long-term results that affected them and their families and the NFL's refusal to acknowledge what it seems they knew thanks to the connivance of alleged medical professionals. This is a grim and fascinating story...very similar as was pointed out, to the tobacco industries refusal to acknowledge the health risks of smoking. Because of this I was much looking forward to it but was left feeling pretty flat at the end.
The first hour of the film is pretty dull until the discovery is made but even then what could and should be a grimly eye-opening story is not that. There is a dramatic flabbiness about the film that is very disappointing and having recently seen another film that dealt with a similar sort of situation ( Spotlight) it was very disappointing that this was the outcome here. I was not looking for a polemic ( and it is a written drama not a documentary) but there seemed to be no dramatic energy in the scenes and the emotions seemed external and forced. The performers are all fine but no one gave a performance that made me think that they were the only actor who could have done that. Disappointing.