( EW.com ) -- These days , there are many less flattering things you could say about a movie than that it 's enjoyable in a square , uncomplicated , stirringly old-fashioned way . 42 , a sports drama about how Jackie Robinson broke the color line in professional baseball , is in some ways a film that could have been made 30 years ago , or 50 years ago . ( In fact , it was made 63 years ago : 1950 's The Jackie Robinson Story starred the legendary second baseman himself . ) The film depicts Robinson , played by the dazzling , little-known actor Chadwick Boseman , as a fearless , noble athlete-crusader — which , of course , is just what he was , though 42 scarcely spends three minutes trying to find any flaws in him ( surely he must have had one ) , or even giving him a sprinkle of idiosyncrasy . Is the writer-director , Brian Helgeland ( who wrote L.A . Confidential and directed A Knight 's Tale ) , worried that we would n't admire Robinson enough ? Helgeland works in what I think of as a conservative — or maybe it 's just really , really basic — neoclassical Hollywood style , spelling everything out , letting the story unfold in a plainspoken and deliberate fashion , with a big , wide , open pictorial camera eye . It 's like the latter-day Clint Eastwood style , applied to material that 's as traditional as can be . EW : '42 ' aims to be box office MVP . Yet in one vital way , the movie feels very contemporary . When Robinson joined the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947 , spearheading the civil rights era before it had a name , he was subjected , on and off the field , to a degree of racial antagonism that could almost be called terrorism . For all its wholesomely uplifting , message-movie design , 42 makes that struggle look every bit as brutal and scary as it was . Robinson 's fellow Dodgers , many of them Southern boys , welcome him to the team by signing a petition to have him kicked off . He 's booed from the stands , pitchers take open delight in beaning him , and in one scene , when he 's up at bat , the manager of the Philadelphia Phillies ( Alan Tudyk ) heckles him from the sidelines by calling him the N-word for five unrelenting minutes . The way that scene goes on and on is scathingly powerful , as Jackie can barely keep himself from coming apart . Boseman , a graceful and handsome actor with a deep inner fire , gives Robinson a stare that 's penetrating and guarded at the same time . A lot of the film 's drama is reading that face — the intelligence and masked outrage . Jackie is n't allowed to fight back against any of the viciousness ( if he did , it would look to mainstream America like he was the troublemaker ) , yet swallowing it eats up his spirit . How does he cope ? EW : 'Star Trek Into Darkness ' 10 new pics . By playing the hell out of the game . Even if he had n't been baseball 's trailblazing crossover star , Robinson had a talent on the field that was explosive . He was a wizard at stealing bases , and the movie glories in his quickness and bravado — how he steps off first base and eases down the path , hopping back and forth like a jackrabbit on a hot stove , holding his arms low , letting his fingers wiggle like nervous antennae . 42 portrays this athletic showmanship with an element of racial psychodrama . Robinson is n't just teasing the pitchers ( the more they look at him , the less they can tell what he 's going to do next ) . He 's mocking them , working off his anger . He triumphs , and holds on to his sanity , by beating racist players at their own game . The movie covers just three years of Robinson 's life , beginning in 1945 , when he 's a World War II veteran playing in the Negro Leagues and gets recruited by the forward-thinking Dodgers general manager , Branch Rickey , to join his minor-league club , the Montreal Royals . As Rickey , a stogie-chomping grump with a heart of gold , Harrison Ford seems to have reinvented himself as an actor . He gives an ingeniously stylized cartoon performance , his eyes atwinkle , his mouth a rubbery grin , his voice all wily Southern music , though with that growl of Fordian anger just beneath it . Calling Robinson into his office , he tells him that he needs a player who does n't so much have the guts to fight back as the guts not to fight back . 42 is a rousing tribute to how impossible , and therefore heroic , a stance that was . Grade : B+ . See the original story at EW.com . CLICK HERE to Try 2 RISK FREE issues of Entertainment Weekly . © 2011 Entertainment Weekly and Time Inc. All rights reserved .
`` 42 '' is a sports drama about how Jackie Robinson broke the color line . Critic says the writer-director lets it `` unfold in a plainspoken and deliberate fashion '' The film stars Chadwick Boseman and Harrison Ford .