HE GOT GAME A film review by Steve Rhodes Copyright 1998 Steve Rhodes
RATING (0 TO ****): ***
HE GOT GAME, writer and director Spike Lee's indictment of the pressure put on young athletes, starts with a beautifully choreographed homage to the sheer joy of shooting hoops. Filmed in slow motion by Malik Hassan Sayeed, the camera caresses the ball in golden sunshine as it spins high in the air on its way to the basket. The players, who live in poor environments in the country and in the ghetto, give it their all even though most of them are playing solo.
Easily the most striking choice Lee made for the film was that of the score. Heavy doses of Aaron Copeland music dominate the handsomely photographed picture with smaller doses of rap music to contrast with the classical. Long after viewers have forgotten the storyline they'll remember the film's sounds and sights.
HE GOT GAME tells the story of the "Jesus of Coney Island." In a monotone performance lacking much depth, real-life basketball star Ray Allen plays Jesus Shuttlesworth, the number one high school basketball prospect in the nation. With ESPN covering his personal life reverentially as befits a sports god, the kid seems to have it all. ("Jesus is the best thing to happen to the game since tennis shoes," effuses one coach.) And what he doesn't have people want to give to him, albeit most of it illegally and with strings attached. Jesus, who appears at first as honest as his namesake, turns down all of the lucrative, under-the-table offers.
Slowly and deliberately the story makes us realize that there are many rewards, from sex to "loans," that Jesus is more than happy to accept as compensation. This Jesus is tempted but isn't always strong enough to refuse.
What the young star lacks are many true friends. From his uncle to
his girlfriend, the people around him are there for a piece of the action. They care about Jesus' money, but little for him as a person, which only heightens his feeling of isolation. (When Jesus asks for a brother to be his agent, a fast-talking Italian-American, with a stable of expensive racing cars to tempt him, offers a simple piece of advice: "When making a business decision, the only color that matters is green.")
The movie's best performance is delivered by Denzel Washington in the complex role of Jesus' father, Jake, who has killed his wife and now
languishes in prison until the governor releases him for a week. The condition for his brief time on the outside is that Jake must convince Jesus to agree to go to the governor's alma mater, Big State. If Jesus signs with Big State, the governor will try to get Jake's sentenced reduced.
Since Jake killed his mother, the ever-cynical Jesus wants nothing to do with him. And he orders his sister, who lives in their apartment,
not to speak to their father, whom he considers just another "stranger."
Who is paying for their apartment and their expenses is one of the questions that the story raises.
Washington, playing a poor African-American rather than the well educated, middle-class one that he normally plays, makes Jake into a believably complicated individual, a likeable guy but one with many faults. One of the subplots has him helping an abused prostitute, played by Milla Jovovich from FIFTH ELEMENT, who lives in the room next to his in a fleabag hotel. In flashbacks we see him drunk and verbally abusing his young son on the basketball court.
The movie has several problems other than Ray Allen's limited acting ability. The story has too many minor characters, including John
Turturro as a coach who uses prayer, multimedia glitz, and free girls to
attract Jesus to his college. The film's female characters, with the exception of Jesus' younger sister, exist only for sexual gratification or temptation.
Concluding with the same sense of magic with which it began, the film manages to take the cliche of the big game that ends most sports movies and give it a whole new spin.
HE GOT GAME runs too long at 2:11. It is rated R for sex, nudity, violence, profanity, and brief drug usage and would be fine for older teenagers.
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