A Real Life Sports Movie
posted on Thursday, November 05, 2009 in Movie Reviews
The story of LeBron James and the St. Vincent-St. Mary Fighting Irish has always been the kind of stuff movies were made of. Four young friends work their way out of a linoleum floored gymnasium to go on and become an American phenomenon before falling into the trappings of fame, getting complacent, and learning a lesson on their way to one final chance of redemption. And that’s exactly what More Than a Game: a documentary that also functions as a pretty great sports movie. It doesn’t address everything that it can, but what’s left is still pretty compelling stuff. In the late nineties, in Akron, Ohio, Dru Joyce found himself coaching a remarkable young basketball team in a Salvation Army gymnasium. The team, which included his undersized son Dru Joyce III, future NBA superstar LeBron James, and two of their closest friends, would just fall short of winning a national championship. But the core of the team stuck together through high school, and would lead the St. Vincent-St. Mary Basketball team to nationwide recognition. The movie documents the meteoric rise of the team, which would make a celebrity out of LeBron James, and put undue pressure on these kids from Ohio.
The movie is being sold as the story of LeBron James, but it’s a lot more than that. This movie catches lightning in a bottle, highlighting not only the future hall of famer, but really digging into the story of this team. While LeBron was obviously the star of the team, the story of his success in High School Basketball just wouldn’t be complete without giving focus to the amazing bond that he formed with his teammates, and the guidance that his coach would provide. The best moments of the film concentrate on Coach Dru Joyce’s journey in realizing what his role had to be in leading the team to victory. Coach Joyce was an unlikely figure to be coaching a national level basketball team, and the movie really brings his story to life, spending time with him as he sweeps floors and gathers basketballs, his success seemingly secondary to simply turning these kids into the men they want to be.
The approach has its drawbacks, though. Even with access to LeBron James at the height of his high school success, Belman wavers at the chance to really scrutinize some of the issues that concern young athletes who garner national attention. Belman touches on some of the more inane controversies that followed James as he became a celebrity, but largely skirts around the larger issues at play. Instead, Belman plays it like any other sports movie, playing up the fame and the controversy as hurdles to be overcome before reaching the final resolution. As it is, it’s still rather entertaining, but it’s just a shame that a more stringent examination of the cult that built around James wasn’t done. With the NBA’s recent ban on recruiting players out of high school, James might be the last of his kind.
The movie’s pretty slickly produced. Belman takes every chance to compose striking images out of the otherwise nondescript setting. Great editing highlights the best moments from hours of game footage, though at times it does seem to be trying to build suspense where the movie doesn’t need it. It only draws away from the movie’s genuinely thrilling moments. The instrumental score is at times a bit heavy handed, and it might’ve served the movie well to just stick with the pop songs that pepper moments of the story.
More Than a Game still doesn’t quite tell the whole story, but it tells a good one. The most profound moments of this film don’t focus on a superstar. They point the camera at regular kids coming from a life and a town that made it unlikely for them to find any sort of success. It looks at a coach who didn’t even really know much about basketball. It looks at people who make it because of passion and heart, and friends who make it work.
My Rating:
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