Dr. Bennett Omalu (Will Smith) is an accomplished pathologist – a multi-hyphenate genius – with a decorated resume in forensics. He practices in Pittsburgh in one of the country’s foremost morgues. [Patricia Cornwell uses this morgue in real life for her ‘Scarpetta’ character/crime research.]
Dr. Omalu works long hours, pouring his life into his work. His boss (Albert Brooks) thinks he could use a life. Apparently so does his local Priest, who suggests he helps a ‘nice girl from Nairobi’ (Gugu Mbatha-Raw). She needs a place to stay. As you can imagine, she’ll slowly remind Dr. Omalu of all he’s missing in life.
But, Dr. Omalu’s theory in his daily practice is that if he knows how someone lived he’ll know how they died. His way of thinking comes into play when it’s learned that studies show a concussion can trigger a place in your brain to make one suicidal….or so he’s about to discover when put on the witness stand to testify in a recent autopsy. By the end of this elegant film (assuming you can get by Smith’s really bad Kenyan accent) we find ourselves asking at what cost is it worth it to join the NFL, if injury/high impact sports and repeated concussions, can eventually contribute to a player’s deaths. Three tiaras