MESSAGE IN THE MOVIES

More Than A Game Rated PG

Directed by Ricky Gervais and Matthew Robinson.  Starring Ricky Gervais, Jennifer Garner

Photo © Lions Gate Films
Movie Review by Rev. Bruce Batchelor Glader

As entertaining as sports-themed movies can be, when a good documentary about high school sports comes along attention must be paid. 

1994’s Hoop Dreams and 2001’s Go Tigers! are both worth your time, but neither one is really appropriate for family viewing. 

More Than a Game is a movie that you can not only watch with your children, but one that will provide great discussion afterwards, for it tells the story of Lebron James, Cleveland Cavaliers superstar, beginning with his involvement in a community youth basketball league (coached by Dru Joyce II) while in middle school. 

But this is not only Lebron’s story, but the story of Lebron, Dru Joyce III, Sian Cotton, and Willie McGee, four childhood friends who played together through it all, eventually becoming a phenomenal powerhouse for St. Vincent-St. Mary, a Catholic high school in Akron, Ohio. 

The guys decide to go to St. V’s after Dru decides that, rather than playing for Akron’s Buchtel High School, he wants to play under the leadership of Coach Keith Dambrot.  The parochial school had never really had many African-Americans in its enrollment, but the four boys (who called themselves “The Fab Four”) would soon put the school on the map, playing high school games in major arenas. 

While most eyes were on Lebron James, the film demonstrates not only how well the boys played as a team, but how they had to deal with fame, changing circumstances (Dambrot leaves to coach at The University of Akron and is replaced by Dru Joyce II), and a new recruit, Romeo Travis, who has issues of his own. 

All of the boys are interesting persons, and first-time director Belman tells his story with wisdom and love of the game.  Early on in the movie, coach Joyce says: "Basketball is a vehicle, not a be-all and end-all. Use basketball; don't let it use you." 

Be sure to see this film while you can.  It’s showing all over Ohio, but hardly anywhere else.  Let’s give it the all of the support that we can muster, so that it receives the national distribution it deserves.

Pitchfork Rating:
Five halos. (An inspiring film with regional interest, filled with genuine moral conviction.)

No picthforks. (An occasional rude word may slip by in this film, but it’s pretty much family-friendly.]

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