Entertainment Weekly by Leah Greenblatt

Director Peter Landesman, who also helmed last year’s political thriller "Kill the Messenger", doesn’t color much outside the lines of conventional drama. But his straightforward telling actually serves the strong cast and taut script — and a story that would be deemed too outrageous to believe if it wasn’t true.

New York Daily News by Allen Salkin

Yes, this important film will deepen a debate about the game's safety. And, yes, it makes the National Football League look like a tobacco company run by the Nixon administration. But immigration is the ultimate political football right now — and when I left the theater, it was with a renewed sense of what one dignified man can achieve when given a chance in a great nation.

Chicago Sun-Times by Richard Roeper

Concussion is a good movie that could have been great without trying so hard to be great.

RogerEbert.com by Glenn Kenny

Will Smith’s performance as Omalu is lovely: small-scaled, precise, imbued with righteousness but not tritely pious.

San Francisco Chronicle by Mick LaSalle

Writer-director Peter Landesman has a fascinating and appalling story to tell here, and that cuts through the layers of corniness.

Miami Herald by Connie Ogle

Director/screenwriter Peter Landesman builds a solid dramatic story around this premise, and Smith delivers a terrific, award-worthy performance as Omalu, nailing his Nigerian accent, his intelligence, his determination to do what he knows is right.

Tampa Bay Times by Steve Persall

Concussion is essentially Erin Brockovich with shoulder pads, a crowd pleaser built upon an issue long ignored.

Charlotte Observer by Lawrence Toppman

Smith dominates the film. He captures the upright stance, slightly stiff movements and lilting accent of a highly educated African who realizes he doesn’t understand America, and America doesn’t understand him.

ReelViews by James Berardinelli

Will Smith gives his all in a role that requires him to undergo a subtle physical transformation, adopt a credible Nigerian accent, and provide a controlled, modulated performance.

Screen Daily by Tim Grierson

Landesman’s film may not be scintillating drama, but it aches with muted anger, and his cast makes sure to keep the proceedings at a consistent simmering boil.

Screen International by Tim Grierson

Landesman’s film may not be scintillating drama, but it aches with muted anger, and his cast makes sure to keep the proceedings at a consistent simmering boil.

The Hollywood Reporter by Stephen Farber

This film is vital in uncovering a hazard that was kept hidden for far too long. At last the secret is out, and Landesman and his fine cast will help to keep the conversation going.

The A.V. Club by Jesse Hassenger

Smith’s Omalu makes a compelling character, supported by his mentor Cyril Wecht (Albert Brooks) and former team doctor Julian Bailes (Alec Baldwin). But Concussion doesn’t crackle like the best whistleblower dramas.

The Playlist by Charlie Schmidlin

A lack of pace and illuminating insight are what keep Concussion from lasting resonance, its flaws threatening to dull the issue for drama in a way that the NFL could only appreciate.

Variety by Andrew Barker

Effective enough as a cautionary tale about willful ignorance and as a showcase for Will Smith...the film is let down by its confused and cliche-riddled screenplay, which struggles mightily to take a complex story and finesse it to fit story beats it was never meant to hit.

The Guardian by Nigel M Smith

A harrowing subject for a film, then, but somehow Landesman – who also wrote the screenplay – never manages to turn it into a gripping movie.

TheWrap by Inkoo Kang

Timely but dreary and dramatically inept.

Slant Magazine by Ed Gonzalez

The tacky and loose means by which the platitudinous screenplay dances around what ails the story's football players is just one cog in a whirligig of pat representations.