"Love & Basketball" follows the twenty-year romance between basketball greats Monica Wright and Quincy McCall(Sanaa Lathan and Omar Epps) from the time they are ten until the present. The film is well directed, well written and well acted, but anyone looking for a sports movie is going to be disappointed. Basketball is mostly used as a MacGuffin to get the two protagonists together.
At age ten they meet as next door neighbors in an affluent L.A. suburb. Quincy's dad is a player for the Clippers. Monica's dad is a banker and her mother (Alfre Woodard) is a '50's sitcom type housewife (or would be if she were white). Quincy and Monica have a game of horse, and Quincy--enraged at losing to a girl--pushes Monica down and gives her a life-long scar on her face. As they get older, they become buddies and we see their turbulent home lives. Quincy's dad stays out late for "business meetings" and Monica remains a tomboy to spite her mother. At the senior dance they come to realize they are in love.
After they both decide to go to USC, you would think the focus would turn more towards the game, but you would be wrong. Although there are scenes of them training and subplots involving intra-squad rivalries, the focus remains on the relationship.
Unfortunately, by spending all the time on the relationship, the film gives short shrift the the parts of the involving them as athletes, which are just as--if not more--compelling. We do see some of the pressures of big time college and professional basketball, but much more is left out. We see that NBA marriages are constantly jeopardized by groupies, but we don't see the fact that they are also constantly jeopardized by long separations when the team is out on the road. We see women's basketball is forever and unjustly overshadowed by the men's game, but we don't see some of the prejudices that keep it that way and the effects those prejudices have on the women who play (i.e. the pressure to appear straight or at least not too butch).
This is not a bad film, particularly as a date film, but by overlooking the athletic part of the story, the filmmakers have made an errant pass. 7 out of 10.
And was I the only one who was unimpressed by Tyra Banks (her acting, that is)?
At age ten they meet as next door neighbors in an affluent L.A. suburb. Quincy's dad is a player for the Clippers. Monica's dad is a banker and her mother (Alfre Woodard) is a '50's sitcom type housewife (or would be if she were white). Quincy and Monica have a game of horse, and Quincy--enraged at losing to a girl--pushes Monica down and gives her a life-long scar on her face. As they get older, they become buddies and we see their turbulent home lives. Quincy's dad stays out late for "business meetings" and Monica remains a tomboy to spite her mother. At the senior dance they come to realize they are in love.
After they both decide to go to USC, you would think the focus would turn more towards the game, but you would be wrong. Although there are scenes of them training and subplots involving intra-squad rivalries, the focus remains on the relationship.
Unfortunately, by spending all the time on the relationship, the film gives short shrift the the parts of the involving them as athletes, which are just as--if not more--compelling. We do see some of the pressures of big time college and professional basketball, but much more is left out. We see that NBA marriages are constantly jeopardized by groupies, but we don't see the fact that they are also constantly jeopardized by long separations when the team is out on the road. We see women's basketball is forever and unjustly overshadowed by the men's game, but we don't see some of the prejudices that keep it that way and the effects those prejudices have on the women who play (i.e. the pressure to appear straight or at least not too butch).
This is not a bad film, particularly as a date film, but by overlooking the athletic part of the story, the filmmakers have made an errant pass. 7 out of 10.
And was I the only one who was unimpressed by Tyra Banks (her acting, that is)?