I was not particularly excited to see Draft Day. I am not a big football fan at all, and this looked like a typical sports film. My friend is a huge football fanatic, so I went to watch with it him. I am happy to say, that I enjoyed this film. While it is riddled with clichés, it had me along for the ride.
First of all, the high caliber of actors in this film is amazing. I thought everyone in the film did an excellent job, with Kevin Costner leading the way. He was definitely the stand out for me, and he elevated his character to great heights. The weak link in the cast is Griffin Newman. The actor was not very good, and I absolutely hated his character. There was no need for him, other than poorly scripted moments of comedic relief (which I did not find comedic). He brought down my enjoyment of the film.
The plot and writing of the film were fairly generic. However, I found myself engaged with the events of the narrative. I was intrigued, and wanted to know where the plot was heading. The problem is, there is a lack of focus. I think there was a bit too much focus on the personal lives of certain characters, and not enough focus on the aspects of the draft. The writing was also pretty choppy. It is not a poorly written film, but some of the dialogue is laughable, and the humor did not work very well.
The editing of the film was interesting. I thought the way they handled phone calls was stylish, but a bit distracting and repetitive. There were some moments where the film did drag along. I think at least 10 minutes could have been cut out, and that could have also contributed to maintaining focus on the actual draft.
Overall, I enjoyed Draft Day. It is by no means a perfect film, but it is an enjoyable one at that. For someone that know nothing of the draft process, I found the film easy to follow, and fairly interesting.