80 for Brady

 3/4

Starring: Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin, Rita Moreno, Sally Field, Harry Hamlin, Tom Brady

Rated PG-13 for Brief Strong Language, Some Drug Content and Some Suggestive References

"80 for Brady" is exactly the movie you think it will be.  Knowing the premise, you can imagine pretty much everything that happens in it.  In broad strokes, at least.  I doubt that anyone could imagine Sally Field tripping balls at a swanky pre-Superbowl party, but it happens in this movie.  Then again, considering where comedy is these days, perhaps it's not that far-fetched.  This scene is one of many, many reasons why I sincerely doubt the film's claim that it is based on true events.

Does that hurt the film?  Not really.  It's funny, the actresses are charming, and that's all that's needed in a movie like this.  It's safe and predictable comfort food, so if that's what you're looking for, this will fit the bill.  Of course I am not in the target audience for this film, but there you have it.

Trish (Fonda), Betty (Field), Maura (Moreno) and Lou (Tomlin) are die-hard Patriots fans.  Specifically Tom Brady.  They've make the guys who paint their bodies in team colors for game day look subdued.  No is more surprised about this than they are, but for them it was kismet.  A number of years ago, Lou had just arrived home from her last round of chemotherapy and her friends were there helping her.  They decided to watch some TV and the channel was stuck on the Patriots game.  That happened to be the very game where a young rookie named Tom Brady took the field and became an overnight star.  They had fun watching him and it quickly became a tradition.  Now they're getting older and want to do something special for themselves.  Lou enters and wins tickets to Super Bowl LI, and now these ladies are going to see their hero in person.

In a perfect world, this wouldn't even be that remarkable of a story.  After all, it's not really different than any story about devout fans.  Yet if it stars a quartet of 80 year old women, it's comedy.  But why shouldn't elderly women be football fans?  My mother (who, by the way, is way younger than 80) became a rabid Iowa Hawkeye football fan when I went there for college?  And in what world is it inappropriate or even funny for elderly women to have a crush on a golden god like Tom Brady?

Still, this movie is not groundbreaking or edgy.  It's fluff, and on that level, the film works.  Key to the film's limited success are four of Hollywood's most respected actresses: Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin, Rita Moreno (whose long career is on an upswing after appearing in Steven Spielberg's "West Side Story" remake) and Sally Field.  They're legends, and have Oscar love to prove it.  Both Fonda and Field have won two Oscars a piece, and Moreno won for the original "West Side Story."  Only Tomlin doesn't have a statue, although she was nominated in 1975 for Robert Altman's "Nashville."  This movie is not a showcase for their talents nor are they given much to work with.  But the true pleasure of this movie is watching them interact with each other and live out their dreams.  This is a harmless fantasy, not a deep look at the human condition.  In addition to them, there are a lot of cameos including Guy Fieri, Patton Oswalt and Brady himself (who is a lot more comfortable saying lines here than he was in "Family Guy" and "Ted 2").

What the film lacks, apart from originality, is a sense of discipline.  The direction from Kyle Marvin, making his feature film debut, is slack.  Safe and formulaic are fine, even encouraged, for a movie like this.  But the direction must be crisp and energetic.  It's slack, and that makes some of the laughs less hearty than they should be and there are times when the film gets close to gooey.  The veteran actresses save a lot of the scenes, but with a quicker pace, it would have been a lot funnier and capture more of the inherent tension that captivates sports fans.

"80 for Brady" is not an ego trip for Tom Brady (although he is a producer, he doesn't have a lot of screen time).  Sure, the ladies are obsessed with him, but no more so than is necessary for the film to work.  The film is more about the four friends than the NFL legend.  And when he does appear, he cedes the spotlight to them.

This film is harmless fluff.  Just as it was meant to be.  On that level, the film works.  I must say, though, that there is no harm in leaving it for streaming.

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