GOOD LUCK

Last year, Atlanta hosted the Special Olympic games, with fans turning out to cheer the athletic prowess and the courage of the physically challenged. The movie GOOD LUCK examines two such athletes who overcome more than physical challenges.

At the beginning of GOOD LUCK, Seattle Seahawks star halfback, Tony Olezniak or Olee (Played by Vincent DíOnofrio), catches a fateful football and is injured, causing him to lose his sight. Sidelined to his bachelor apartment, Olezniak listens in a blind rage as his ex-girlfriend betrays their intimate moments to a talk show host. He throws the TV set and the rest of her furniture out of his balcony, wrecking a parked car below. He is sent to jail.

Meanwhile, wheelchair-bound Bernard Lemley (Gregory Hines ) sees a TV report on Oleeís plight and goes to visit him in the jail. He finds the ex-star sitting on a bunk, absorbed in self pity. Bern reminds Olee that he is his old high school biology teacher. He proposes an imaginative solution to their mutual sufferings: why not prove to themselves and to the rest of the handicapped world that they can surmount their handicaps by entering a white-water race in Oregon? Bern gives Olee a model catamaran, which can hold him, and Bernís wheelchair on a white water run.

Together, Olee and Bern drive to Oregon and approach the Coos Bay white water race officials to register for the race. The officials rebuff them, claiming that insurance risks would not permit them to enroll handicapped participants. A nosy local, Farmer Ed, (Max Gail) suggests they crash the race, practicing upstream first. Olee and Bern launch the catamaran into calm waters, but drift into rapids anyway and lose their bearings. The raft overturns, jettisoning both would-be racers into the water. Afterwards, Olee pulls Bern to shore, and Bern exclaims how invigorated he feels, regardless of their misfortune.

They meet Farmer Ed again, who turns out to be a pro-football player wannabe and marijuana grower, who helps them recover their catamaran and Bernís wheelchair in time for the race the next day. They re-approach the same race officials, plunk down $700 and this time challenge them to a game of catch football: if they win, they get to race. The filmís climax comes as Olee runs blindly down the street, catches Farmer Edís pass and scores the gameís only touchdown, to the cheers of the entire town, who recognize Olee as Seattleís famous former player. Smiles and congratulations all around. Needless to say, they enter the white water race the next day to the localsí cheers.

Well acted, and very believable, GOOD LUCK is marred by Oleeís obsession with sex and defecation. Some of his dialogue comes right out of a football locker room. Bern retains his dignified aloofness throughout the film, except when he celebrates Oleeís catch in Coos Bay, Oregon.

Surprisingly well shot for a low-budget, independent production, with beautiful footage of Oregon mountains, GOOD LUCK depicts two unfortunate athletes displaying girt and determination to symbolically overcome their respective physical challenges with admirable human effort. It is a film about the triumph of the human spirit over severe handicaps. Olee turns from bitter self absorption to joy, indicating partial redemption.

At no point in the story, however, do these two handicapped men appeal to God, who alone has the power and authority to heal lifeís injuries. Jesus Christ calls all men to pray and to have faith in Him no matter how awful the injuries they have suffered, because, as He said to the blind man, ìreceive your sight, your faith has made you well.î