Going hard to the hoop with 'More Than a Game'
Documentary follows rise of NBA star LeBron James
For seven years, "More Than a Game" director Kristopher Belman must have been praying to the gods of karma: Please don't let LeBron get hurt, please don't let LeBron get hurt, please please please ...
Because if LeBron James got hurt or was otherwise waylaid on his path to superstardom, Belman had maybe half a movie at best.
(Lionsgate/AP)
Lionsgate presents a film directed by Kristopher Belman. Written by Belman and Brad Hogan. Running time: 105 minutes. Rated PG (for brief mild language and incidental images of smoking). Opening today at local theaters.
Fortunately for Belman and for hoops fans everywhere, NBA star James remained healthy and focused, sidestepping a few minor pitfalls on his way to becoming the greatest basketball player of his generation. With the Cleveland Cavaliers' star forward as the centerpiece and with footage dating back to James' junior high days, "More Than a Game" is one of the most compelling documentaries about the sport since "Hoop Dreams" (1994).
When James was just a junior at St. Vincent-St. Mary High School in Akron, he was already more famous than most pro athletes. He was the subject of a Sports Illustrated cover story; he was signing autographs and posing photos for mobs of fans. Some of his games were covered by ESPN. (Ah, what a healthy society, where 16-year-olds are worshipped by adults three times that age.) By then, Belman had already been recording the team for years, the core group being James, Sian Cotton, Willie McGee and Dru Joyce III (whose father coached them as youths and took over the high school reins when the coach who recruited them for St. Vincent-St. Mary moved up to a college job).
Although James is the undeniable star of the team and of the film, Belman devotes enough time to his teammates, and to their coach, for us to feel emotionally invested in each of their fates. When the talented but recalcitrant Romeo Travis joins the group midway through their journey, he seems either unwilling or unable to fully embrace the tightly knit bunch, and vice versa.
The grainy, home-video quality footage of the games doesn't translate well to the big screen, though James' enormous talents are still evident. More revealing is the practice footage, where the teenage James scolds his point guard for dogging it. Like Michael Jordan, LeBron seems born to the role of not only the most talented player in his universe, but the most focused, the most driven and the most mature.
Like a traditional fictional sports movie, "More Than a Game" relies a bit too much on dramatic game footage set to a soaring soundtrack. There's some mention of controversies, e.g., LeBron's mother gifting him with a $55,000 Hummer and LeBron getting suspended for accepting a couple of replica jerseys. (In other words, it's OK for ESPN, Sports Illustrated, et al., to feature this kid and make money off him, but God forbid he takes a jersey as a gift and taint his precious amateur standing. In the meantime, the team is traveling all around the country, playing a ridiculous schedule. Guess they're catching up on their studies on the bus.)
"More Than a Game" doesn't fully live up to its title, as it's more interested in focusing on the lifelong friendship among the players than in examining a culture that makes royalty out of teen superstars, whether it's LeBron James or Miley Cyrus. But as a video time capsule of James' amazing rise and his admirable poise throughout, as a story of a unique bond that apparently has survived all the way through James' current status as perhaps the second-most famous athlete in the world behind Tiger Woods, it is a remarkable piece of filmmaking.