Dennis Quaid and Rob Brown go aboard 'The Express'

Thursday, October 9th 2008, 11:55 AM

Sports biodramas generally take one of two tacks: gauzily sentimental or scrappy tale of struggle. "The Express" runs the thin line between the two and, to its benefit, more often than not hits the first mark. But that's also the source of the film's problems, since Ernie Davis' historically important years as a college football great were built on adversity.

Beginning with a few scenes of his boyhood in Uniontown, Pa., where his loving grandfather (Charles S. Dutton) emphasizes the importance of Jackie Robinson, the movie dashes to Davis' (Rob Brown) recruitment out of Elmira, N.Y., by Syracuse University and head coach Ben Schwartzwalder (Dennis Quaid), who senses the fast-charging Davis could rival his last superstar, NFL-bound Jim Brown.

RELATED: DENNIS QUAID CALLS MEG RYAN "UNBELIEVABLE"

But Davis wants to stand on his own. His whole life, he was an optimist who saw everything, including institutionalized racism, as a hurdle he could leap with a huge grin and a lot of heart. His gridiron accomplishments even wear down Schwartzwalder's grizzly persona.

By the time "The Elmira Express" wins the Heisman trophy in 1962 - the first black player to do so - Davis seems to be held down by very little. Then some mysterious ailments keep him off the field, and by the time he announces he has leukemia in the summer of 1962, his never-started career with the Cleveland Browns is already over. Less than a year later he's dead at age 23.

Director Gary Fleder ("Runaway Jury," "Kiss the Girls") thankfully avoids maudlin "Brian's Song"-type moments - Davis' death is revealed in an end credit - and he and cinematographer Kramer Morgenthau go for the antique candy store/ collector's card look à la "The Natural," which works well. There's also a gripping Cotton Bowl matchup in Texas, and a harrowing game played before a violent, intolerant crowd in West Virginia.

But the movie's bow to conventionality undercuts much of the cultural-historical truth Fleder clearly feels many sports movies lack. And though Brown is a winning, engaging hero, the script gives him few chances at becoming flesh-and-blood (his romance with a pretty visiting co-ed is an afterthought and completely devoid of passion).

Quaid, who buries his football eatin' grin under a scowl and dodders around like John McCain, does a solid but textbook take on the grumpy coach with a hidden heart. Sadly, however, this is all too familiar, which is something nobody could say about the real Ernie Davis.