“When one link breaks, the whole thing falls apart. You can’t ride a bicycle without a chain.” Romeo Travis, a star player on St. Mary-St. Vincent’s Fighting Irish basketball team, really sums it up. More Than a Game, Kristopher Belman’s documentary about NBA star LeBron James’s high school basketball team and childhood best friends, does all it can to emphasize the importance of teamwork. The film follows the Fab Five (originally the Fab Four) from its beginnings as an inner-city elementary school basketball team to its national championship victory for the Fighting Irish during its members’ senior year of high school.
In terms of sheer entertainment, the film delivers. From the opening credits onward, you are pulled into the story by vivid images, excellent footage of the team and thoughtfully placed original video and interviews. Funny moments are scattered throughout the movie as well, providing for laughs along the way.
However, the narrative — while certainly inspiring to the point of making you feel all tingly inside — sometimes pushes the “underdog” theme too hard. True, most people wouldn’t expect a high school basketball team made up mostly of neighborhood kids from Akron, Ohio to win a national championship. It is a remarkable story. But the starting players had gained considerable recognition as far back as eighth grade. LeBron James was already considered the best high school basketball player of his day, if not ever, by many sports reporters. The team didn’t exactly appear out of the blue.
Still, the story is moving and touches on many important issues such as teamwork, diligence, persistence, friendship, the importance of family (both biological and surrogate) and the positive effects that organized activities like basketball can have on poor inner-city teens. This well-made documentary offers great entertainment for anybody, even those (like me) who are not impassioned basketball fans.
3.5 stars Directed by: Kristopher Belman Starring: LeBron James Rated PG, 105 min.
