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Cuba Gooding Jr. must really want another Oscar. Ever since winning the Best Supporting Actor trophy for Jerry Maguire, he's been doing sad variations on the hyperactive "Show me the money!" shtick but to no avail. With Radio, he takes on the tried-and-true award-winning role: He plays a retarded man. And not just any retarded man, but a real-life, inspirational, triumph-over-adversity one who teaches tolerance to an entire Southern town.
Gooding plays mentally disabled James Robert "Radio" Kennedy, who gets his nickname from his love of both listening to and taking apart portable radios. In Anderson, S. C., in 1976, Radio watches from a fence as the high school football team practices under the direction of Coach Jones (Ed Harris). When a few of the players harass Radio, Jones invites the young man to join practices as the team's assistant/cheerleader/mascot.
Naturally, the athletes take to the shy but kind-hearted Radio, Jones finds a renewed purpose in helping Radio fit in, and a certain Grinch who opposes Radio's involvement with the school's athletic program eventually has his heart grow two sizes. It's calculated to warm your heart, with James Horner's overbearing score swelling meaningfully in case you're not sure when to be moved. Maybe the problem is that Radio is just too loveable; most of the film's conflict is half-hearted and there's never a real struggle for Radio to be accepted.
But the movie is not nearly as cloying and smarmy as it could have been, thanks to a particularly strong performance from Harris and solid supporting turns from Alfre Woodard and Debra Winger. Gooding is positively restrained as Radio, considering his recent spastic performances in weak comedies like Boat Trip and The Fighting Temptations. He probably won't follow in the Oscar-winning, disabled footsteps of Tom Hanks and Daniel Day-Lewis, but he at least sells Radio's child-like innocence and bursts of emotion effectively.
It's hard to be critical of a film that wants so badly to be loved, especially as the real Radio and Coach Jones show up at the end, demonstrating the bond that still exists between them. But Radio, the film, is squarely middle-of-the-road. It's decent, made-for-TV fare, only elevated by some seasoned actors and not much more.