Unfortunately, no amount of makeup or prosthetic noses can hold [Al] Pacino back for long, and his growl is so loud sometimes that it overpowers the vision of the wounded god Paterno became.
It speaks to viewers with disparate reactions, but it also speaks to anyone who didn't dig into the scandal at the time by outlining what happens when we are too quick to defend the famous faces instead of those claiming to be victimized by them.
Where this movie may really lose you, though, is when it asks you to care about what and when Paterno knew of the abuse, or even to feel sorry for him.
As a motion picture, Paterno is at odds with itself - playing both as a chamber piece character study and a Spotlight-style investigative journalism procedural - never really finding its true footing.
Yes, it's interesting to watch Paterno's end as his family tries to rally around him, but there are too-few glimpses of Penn St. in his heyday, when he and others conveniently looked the other way.
