“McFarland, USA” may look like just another cheap predictable sports drama, but the film pleasantly surprises with its emotional performances and heartfelt story.

“McFarland, USA” is based on the real life story of coach Jim White (Kevin Costner) who moves to McFarland, California after an altercation at his previous high school. White and his family reluctantly settle in a predominantly Latino community where he tries to coach football, but realizes that his new students’ are extraordinary runners. White then forms the school’s first cross country running team and embarks on a heartfelt journey with his students and community.

Given the premise of the film and the “based on a true story” tagline, audiences can easily guess almost every aspect of this film without even seeing it, and they would probably be right.

Nevertheless, this is a film that proves that an old formula can still work and “McFarland” pulls it off in spades.

The performances are wonderful and heartfelt with Costner back in his natural role being a coach in a sports drama. His performance is sincere, honest, and brutally truthful as his character learns to look past the racial stereotypes that have become a norm for today.

Maria Bello, who portrays White’s wife, also gives a good performance. Aside from Costner, the real stars are the student that White coaches as each actor provides a powerful performance.

As mentioned before, this is as clichéd as a sports drama can get with very little surprises and risk taking, even though there can only be so many creative liberties taken with a true story, this is a still good film.

Perhaps the biggest surprise is that the film does not focus primarily on the races that the students have, even though there are quite a few suspenseful races. The movie chooses to focus on the effects that the cross-country team has on not just White, but his students. The other focus of the film is White’s growing acceptance of his community and his embracement of their culture as it affects his family as well.

The only real negatives of the film is that outside of the excellently filmed drama held in the earlier parts of the film, the last half tries to go a little heavy handed but does nothing with it. However, being a Disney film, the intensity of the drama can only go so far. Other negatives would include little character development for some of the students on White’s team as well as some confusing character motivations in the last half.

Despite these few negatives, “McFarland, USA” is a wonderful time for anyone of any age. Despite a clichéd formula, Costner and the rest of the cast provide brilliant performances in a story that would be hard for even the most serious of audience members to watch without cracking a smile or two.