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Forever Strong

“Forever Strong” is based on the Highland rugby team, a high school located in Salt Lake City, Utah. They’ve won the USA national rugby championship for 18 out of the last 30 years under Coach Larry Gelwix. The film’s message follows Gelwix’s theory, “It's not about building a championship team, it's about building championship boys.” It’s your typical inspirational sports movie just with rugby as the subject and a sub-setting of a detention center.

Rick Penning, played by Sean Farris, is an arrogant, yet talented rugby player. His tough and domineering father is also his winning obsessed coach who always seems to be disappointed by Rick. When faced against their rivals and the current champions, Highland, their team is embarrassingly defeated. This doesn’t stop Rick and his teammates from partying hard that night. Rick drives drunk with his girlfriend, Tammy, in the car with him, encouraging her to goof around with him while driving in his state. The car crashes and Tammy is drastically injured. As this is Rick’s second DUI he gets sent to a detention facility until he is 18, quite possibly followed by jail.

Rick is bitter and very much to himself for quite awhile. He doesn’t have much contact with others aside from the fights that he seems to get involved with day after day. Cleaning toilets as punishment ends up being what he does more than anything else. Eventually, when some of the other boys are playing football and are insistent that Rick join them, he says he will play with them, but only if they play rugby. He teaches them rugby as the detention hall warden, Marcus, played by Sean Astin, watches. He thinks Rick’s love of rugby and dire need to turn himself around makes him a perfect candidate for the Highland team, who he also played for. Marcus claims Coach Gelwix, played by Gary Cole, taught him everything he knows, not just about rugby, but about life. Rick refuses to join due to his hatred for Highland, but eventually agrees both to look like he is making an effort to turn things around so he doesn’t end up in jail and to steal tactics to give to his home team when he goes back.

When Rick shows up for practice, he is surprised to find out all of the running and massive physical exercises he is forced to do, along with the yard work and volunteering to read with terminally ill children that he is expected to do. He resists time and time again as it seems like this is all for nothing, especially since it doesn’t even seem like the coach pays attention to them. Rick is downgraded to a less than star position on the team and plays horribly, giving the team their first loss in quite some time. Eventually Rick gets closer with his teammates and coaches as he learns that being a part of this team is about teamwork and respect, which he never really had before.

The performances are pretty good, which is what helps keep your interest. Sean Faris makes you hate him for a majority of the film as the irresponsible and self-righteous Rick. In the end, we do end up caring for him and believing that he changed for the better. Rick deserves what he gets when he is sent away, but Faris succeeds in making a convincing transformation all the same. Rick’s inability to live up to his father’s desires makes us sympathize with him, making it easier to cheer for him in the end. “Forever Strong” might not be the most genuinely profound film, but it’s still nice to see Faris take on a more serious role than he usually does. Gary Cole did very well as Coach Gelwix. At times it was hard to read him, but this helped the eventual caring mentor he brought out more rewarding. Sean Astin brought out another father figure to Rick, encouraging him every step of the way. Neal McDonough seemed to play Rick’s father somewhat flat, only exerting anger throughout, without real emotion or reasoning visible. A lot of this was how the character was written, but McDonough didn’t really help bring the character to life realistically.

“Forever Strong” is very predicable from beginning to end. The massive change that many characters seem to make is pretty unrealistic so you have to be able to suspend a good deal of disbelief to get in to the film. If you can do this though, it can be an enjoyable film. The Highland team members are a bit more realistic and well rounded characters. They are both thoughtful and entertaining, offering a few laughs throughout the melodrama. I also appreciated the principle of forming good hearted people by forming discipline through a rough sport. A lot of sports films are about the qualities of determination and teamwork. In most, even losing the big game isn’t bad if the team has grown into champions of life. So, “Forever Strong” isn’t anything completely different in this respect, but as this was Coach Gelwix’s real life philosophy, it’s interesting and even moving to know someone built a career and life around rugby in hopes of making young men the best people they could be. “Forever Strong” is predictable and has clichéd dialogue, but through some fun characters and an inspired message it can be an enjoyable film.

Written by: Kelsey Zukowski

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