Brian Banks

Hodge's resolute performance anchors the film, while the nuanced screenplay from Doug Atchison and lush visual language from cinematographer Ricardo Diaz push it several rungs above prosaic TV-movie-style fare.

Brian Banks almost never surprises us. We know where the story is going. (If it didn't go a certain way, there would be no movie.) Still, it's a well-constructed, well-acted, solidly told tale.

The true story of a football player falsely accused of sexual assault is lifted by Aldis Hodge in the title role but brought low by a flat, formulaic telling.

[A] well-intentioned film crippled by its dramatic structure.

For "Brian Banks..." it to succeed we have to buy Banks as an exceptional individual, able to rise above adversity and doubts by virtue of his determination, belief in self and overall strength of personality, all of which Hodge urgently conveys.

Playing Banks over the course of more than a decade, Hodge consistently makes the movie compelling, even when it veers toward a safe, faith-based uplift.

This is a great story, well told, about a man who refuses to give up on his quest for justice, despite the incredible odds against him.

Director Tom Shadyac respects the moral clarity in the Brian Banks screenplay by Doug Atchison, who also wrote the moving Akeelah and the Bee, another keen observation of individual action over activism.

What had the potential to be a really strong film ultimately comes across as a better-than-average-looking TV movie of the week.

Brian Banks tells but one story of our broken system of justice, and it tells it very well.