Will Smith stars as the Nigerian-born doctor who helped identify the brain damage afflicting* many pro football players in his latest movie “Concussion.”

    The movie dramatizes a crisis that is making headlines today: the dangers of serious brain damage caused by the violent collisions of professional football.

    Smith plays Dr. Bennet Omalu, a Nigerian-born pathologist* working in Pittsburgh, who investigates the untimely death of former Steelers star Mike Webster. Omalu suspects a connection between all the blows to the head that Webster suffered and the dementia* that led to his death. As he looks into the deaths of other players, Omalu identifies a brain trauma called CTE that is disturbingly widespread. NFL doctors and club owners try to bury his findings, but eventually Omalu finds allies* who help him to publicize the truth.

    This summary may make the film sound like an academic paper, but it’s thoroughly engrossing* and entertaining. Director Peter Landesman worked as a journalist before moving into filmmaking, and he has a sense of how to grab an audience. He also showed in his film, “Parkland,” a drama about the Kennedy assassination, that he has a real gift in drawing strong performances from a large cast.

    Under Landesman’s guidance, Smith transforms himself impressively. He handles the accent easily, and he submerges* his usual wise-guy persona into the character of this slightly stiff and arrogant doctor. Smith doesn’t idealize Omalu; we can see why the dogged*, self-assured* man can anger his colleagues. The fact that Omalu knew nothing about football probably made him the ideal person to puncture one of America’s sacred cows.

    The film is rated PG-13.

    (SD-Agencies)