Concussion is the movie in which Will Smith plays a doctor who takes on the NFL in his quest to understand and socialize CTE (Concussion Traumatic Encephalopathy). It talks about his struggle from working in the morgue/being a new immigrant to the US to having his voice heard at one of the largest corporations in America. I watched this movie because I was interested in learning more about CTE and the NFL take on it, rather than hearing the story so I think I came in with different expectations.

I suppose I was more interested in seeing a documentary but ended up watching a movie with a plotline and character development. Due to this, I think my rating of 2 out of 5 stars is using the wrong lens. While I can see that Dr Omalu went through a lot in his life to do what he thought it was right, it was not engaging to me. I also think that the fact it glossed over a lot of the science/research and time it takes to do that while being rigorous is off-putting.

However, what this movie got me interested in is seeing the difference between the Hollywood story and what actually happened. Here’s the original GQ article on CTE.