Sports film fans and basketball junkies will more than likely tear More Than A Game to pieces.
Kristopher Behlm’s documentary that chronicles the rise of NBA star LeBron James from a lanky impoverished child to a force to be reckoned with on the court is full of fuzzy facts about the high school element of the sport.
The tragic formula brilliantly captured in
Hoop Dreams – a classic “young ballers in the ‘hood” documentary with a not-so-happy ending but piercing realism – will not be seen. Being that one of the primary subjects of the story is already one of the most acclaimed players in the NBA, the ending is known from the beginning.
But what the film lacks in grit, edge and drama, it more than makes up for in hope.
Behlm was a college student when he started filming the documentary after LeBron made it to the cover of Sports Illustrated before he was eligible to become a professional athlete.
But More Than A Game is more than just about James. It actually offers a balanced, true-life character study of the five young men who made the nation take notice of an Akron, Ohio high school team that would produce a player that many are already saying will go down as the best player in NBA history.
These men – including James – come to the court with plenty of baggage: single-family homes, poverty, turmoil. But Behlm, obviously green with the optimism of a young filmmaker in search of a happily ever after, focuses on the positive.
They are young men chasing a dream, a dream that one will realized in every way imaginable for one of them, and the film shows the highs and lows as they chase victory on the court across the country.
More Than A Game spends more time showcasing the boys’ growing pains in the sport through Dru Joyce II, a coach who originally pulled the young men that would start St. Vincent and Mary’s notoriety as a basketball powerhouse when they were just boys tossing balls around inside the Salvation Army.
James, Willie McGee, Dru Joyce’s son Dru III, and Sian Cotton had been playing together since elementary school.
The junior Dru decided, as the little man on the team, that he would have more of a chance on the court if he attended the predominately white St. Vincent and Mary. Despite the racial division that resonated in Akron, his childhood teammates followed him to the school and led St. Vincent and Marry to three state championships. (A fifth member, Romeo Travis, joined the team later in their high school journey.)
The film effectively captures a rare and touching bond between teammates and coaches and the tensions between father and son.
More Than A Game also features several vignettes on the personal stories behind the players: LeBron being raised by a teen mother and thrust into poverty, Willie McGee’s escape from family turmoil in Chicago to the loving arms of an older brother who is barely old enough to be a father figure, Dru Joyce’s conquest of criticism from his father/coach and the prep basketball community to become the big man on campus with a stellar performance during his freshman year.
The film shows them transformed from humble players looking for their groove among young power players to cocky, careless primadonnas faced with the reality of losing the reputation that they worked so hard to establish among a country of superstar teams and players.
Unfortunately, the film barely cracks the surface of the many layers that are obviously within the story behind More Than A Game. The unhappy times – especially for James (who executive produces the film) – seem to be imposed on him from the outside. The reality of growing up poor and James’ absent father is barely given a mention. The outside influences and barriers that almost certainly confronted these young men were carefully omitted.
But More Than A Game captures an essential element in the success factor of young black boys struggling to make it in the inner city: strong black men, from coaches to dads, brothers and teammates, loving and supporting each other.
Even though the documentary paints an all-too-pretty picture, a film that shows the impact and influence of positive black role model support systems (of all ages) makes the film worthwhile.
More Than A Game opens on Friday, October 16 in theaters nationwide. The film is rated PG with a running time 102 minutes.
