What is it About Sports Movies?

Yeah, I got sucked into another one. And…I suppose I have to admit that it was because it starred Kellan Lutz and Ashley Greene (Emmet and Alice Cullen from the Twilight series). Okay, so it wasn’t the only reason. The story sounded interesting, too.

So I did what I usually do – checked IMDB for some reviews. Netflix’s best guess for me (what their system thinks I’d rate it) was about 4.25 stars out of 5.0. IMDB has an average rating of 5.4 stars out of 10.0. And four out of the six written reviews were not complimentary.

Why did I choose A Warrior’s Heart?

I don’t know. I guess I was just in a mood for something a little different after watching Remembrance, a story of two WW2 prisoners escaping from a concentration camp  earlier in the evening. While it was a good movie, it was not a happily-ever-after kind of thing, so I was looking for a more light-hearted story. This wasn’t exactly what I was aiming for – but it kind of was too.

~~~

Conner Sullivan is a lacrosse player. Early in the movie his father comes home from the war and the family moves from the west to the east coast when his colonel he is transferred. Shortly thereafter, his father is sent back to Iraq…and is killed.

Maybe it’s because I still have trouble watching movies where fathers die, but that part was hard to get through. Especially after Conner accidentally deletes a text he’d saved from his dad. It reminded me of when I accidentally deleted a message from my dad on my answering machine. That really made it real for me, and after that I was pretty invested in the story.

At the house after the funeral, Conner starts to walk out. He can’t deal with the crowd. An American Indian soldier in uniform tries to stop him, telling him his family needs him, but he leaves anyway.

After a month, he’s still a very angry young man who gets violent on the lacrosse field and is kicked off the team. On the way out of the school, he breaks the glass case displaying trophies and pictures … some won by his father…and is arrested.

The Native American I mentioned earlier, played by the adorable Adam Beach, shows up and takes him to a camp for troubled teens. Not the kind of camp you might be thinking of, but if you want to find out what I mean, you’ll have to watch the movie yourself.

Over the course of a week, Conner learns some very important lessons and, more importantly, grows up.

As with most movies that are sports themed, it’s the kind that makes you feel good when it’s over. It’s definitely not as big budget as The Blind Side or Radio,  but it’s pretty darned good anyway. In fact, I’m glad I chose to ignore the negative reviews.

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