 Media Credit: Photo Courtesy of Columbia Pictures Cuba Gooding Jr. and Ed Harris´s characters form a truly unique bond in Radio, which is based on a true story.
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RADIO: A local high school football coach takes a withdrawn, mentally challenged man who goes by the name of Radio under his wing. In the process, Radio transforms into a jovial and very talkative young man, but more importantly, the entire town is changed by the presence of this miraculous person. Now playing at Circle Cinemas and AMC Fenway.t Circle Cinemas and AMC Fenway 13.
The previews for this film would lead the prospective viewer to believe that the focus is on football as well as the relationship between Coach Jones (Ed Harris) and Radio (Cuba Gooding Jr.). For those viewers who are passionate about the sport, be prepared that this is not the focus. The plot extends well beyond the football season. Based strictly on the previews, it can be assumed that the movie is about Radio helping a coach during the football season. The movie is exactly the opposite: It is the coach and the team who aid Radio in becoming an integral part of this small community.
In his role as Radio, Cuba Gooding Jr. pushes his versatility as an Academy Award-winning actor one step further. From the opening scene, Gooding shows that he has the discipline as an actor to undertake this very concentrated and challenging role. The challenge lies in disguising this focus and acting lovable and extremely naïve. Gooding immerses himself in his character. Even before Radio becomes a vocal personality, Gooding's physical actions reveal the persona of the character whom the audience gets to know and love. It is evident that Gooding studied the true-life counterpart and brought this real life human being into the film. Gooding's acting is enough to conceal the fallacies that appear in the movie.
These fallacies exist in dealing with the foremost issues in the film. In making a film that deals with a difficult topic such as mental retardation, the issue is somewhat candy-coated. If a viewer is interested in just the pleasure factor of a movie, it will prove to be euphoric. Looking critically at the film, some events seem somewhat Hollywooditized. The film, based on a true story, takes place in South Carolina in the 1970s. Although it is amazing that in this time period an entire town, entirely ignorant of mental retardation, completely embraces Radio in the span of months, which was the case in the Radio's story, the movie fails to address more of the hardships that were involved in the underlying story.
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