Movie Review: Catch a Fire

Catch a Fire (2006) 

Directed by Phillip Noyce

Written by Phillip Noyce 

Starring Derek Luke, Tim Robbins, Bonnie Henna

Release Date October 27th, 2006

Published October 27th, 2006

The life of Patrick Chamusso is interesting and dramatic but no more so than other African men who joined the fight against Apartheid. So why is the life story of Patrick Chamusso now being told in the action drama Catch A Fire? Writer-director Phillip Noyce has no answer for that in terms of why Patrick Chamusso appealed to him in particular.

However, elements of Patrick's life do lend themselves to a particular political point that Noyce wants to make about the current war on terror. Thus, the life story of Patrick Chamusso is basically a coat hanger for an over-arching metaphor about our current state of geo-political affairs. Whether you agree with Noyce, as I do, you can't help but feel overwhelmed by the hammer like; lack of subtelty in Catch A Fire and the way Patrick Chamusso's story is abused for a political purpose.

Derek Luke stars in Catch A Fire as Patrick Chamusso a responsible family man who has managed to find a strong measure of success in the white dominated world of South Africa. Working in management at an oil refinery Patrick has a nice home, two beautiful children and his wife Precious (Bonnie Mbulli) is a former beauty queen.

So how did Patrick Chamusso go on from a man who fit so well in the rigid Boer dominated society of South Africa to become a revolutionary in the African National Congress, training to become a soldier in the war against Apartheid?

Late one night the refinery is bombed by the ANC. Patrick and two of his closest friends are arrested for the crime. Patrick has an alibi, he was visitiing his son by a different mother; an indiscretion he refuses to admit so that his wife will not find out. This leads to Patrick being tortured for weeks on end by a team of government security officers under the direction of Nic Vos (Tim Robbins).

After Patrick's wife is subjected to torture as well, Patrick confesses to the crime he did not commit. His confession however, is disregarded by Vos who decides he was not guilty afterall and let's him go. With his family in shambles and his pride damaged by being unable to protect his wife, Patrick feels he has no other option but to fight back against the white establishment that attacked him without reason.

The point that Phillip Noyce wants to make here is that sometimes terrorists aren't born, they're made. This same point has been made by talking heads all over world in relation to the American invasion of Iraq. Men who feel their country or family is under attack have gone from businessmen running a fruit stand to an enemy combatant willing to give his life to stop the American invaders.

Consider the photos that came from Abu Ghraib prison. Now imagine the average Iraqi citizen seeing how fellow Iraqis are treated and deciding to fight against America. How about the victims of America's so called Shock and Awe campaign that began the war in Iraq. Though American bombs were as accurate as they could possibly be, many went off course and killed Iraqi citizens, more than enough reasoning for a relative or friend to decide they will fight against America.

Consider those things and consider that outside of their metaphorical significance, none of these things have anything but  a tenuous connection to the life of Patrick Chamusso. When thinking of the life of Patrick Chamusso you can see cinematic elements but nothing more cinematic than the life of any number of A.N.C members who gave their life to fighting apartheid.

Telling Patrick Chamusso's story is simply not the point of Catch A Fire.

Derek Luke gives a credible dramatic life to the role of Patrick Chamusso. Unlike director Noyce, for whom Chamusso is just a useful tool, Luke respects the story of Patrick and takes care in bringing it to life. Unfortunately for Luke, Chamusso is a pawn in this plot. There is little dramatic arc here. Patrick Chamusso's life turned on the decision to fight back against the government that wronged him. Had the government not tortured his wife he likely would never have become militant, never would have fought back.

Is what Phillip Noyce does with the story of Patrick Chamusso so wrong? No. What happened to Patrick Chamusso provides a strong metaphorical correlation to the story of any number of Iraqis who became militant in the face of invading Americans that they felt were not liberators but were in fact attacking them, their family's and their way of life. (If you want an essay on the good of the Iraq invasion, write it yourself).

What bothers me about Catch A Fire is the lack of any subtlety in making this metaphorical point. Somewhere along the line someone genuinely wanted to tell the story of Patrick Chamusso and Phillip Noyce came along and decided to use that story for his own purposes.

Noyce's intentions are not stated overtly onscreen except in the casting of noted war protestor Tim Robbins. Now, Robbins does deliver a very strong performance in Catch A Fire. However, his presence is yet another signalling of the overarching metaphor. Robbins himself has in past interviews made the point about how the invasion of Iraq has created as many enemies as it's killed, now in Catch A Fire he has given a dramatic presentation of that point using the life of Patrick Chamusso as a tool.

Before my conservative readers get the wrong impression about Robbins role in Catch A Fire;  take note. Robbins' Nick Vos is no simple villain, nor is his villainy a representation of American soldiers, interrogators or even politicians. Robbins' character is very conflicted about the actions he feels he is forced to take in order to ensure the status quo in South Africa. Vos honestly believed what he was doing was the right thing and that he was just following orders when he engaged in torturing men he believed were terrorists.

Catch A Fire is a well made political drama about a good man who goes beyond himself to right the wrong of Apartheid and to get some measure of revenge for the ills caused to his family. That his story is abused by director Phillip Noyce to make a tortured metaphoric point about his and others opposition to the war in Iraq is not a reflection on how interesting or uninteresting, worthy or unworthy, Patrick Chamusso's life story is.

Phillip Noyce had a point he wanted to make and he used the life of Patrick Chamusso to make it. I wish he might have brought a little more nuance or subtlety to the evocation of this metaphor but that didn't happen. Thus like repeated hammer blows, the point of Catch A Fire is made over and over until the story of Patrick Chamusso is just background noise.

Movie Review Spartan

Spartan (2004) 

Directed by David Mamet 

Written by David Mamet 

Starring Val Kilmer, Derek Luke, William H. Macy, Ed O'Neill, Kristen Bell 

Release Date March 12th, 2004 

Published March 15th, 2004 

"Where's the girl?"

A line tersely delivered, often through the gritted teeth of aggravated men. This is the writing of David Mamet in his newest incarnation, the action thriller Spartan. Minimalist, to the point, and exciting when delivered by actors with conviction, Mamet's writing is the highlight of all of his films (State and Main, The Spanish Prisoner, House of Games) and when teamed with a capable cast it's sublime in it's simplicity, smarts and humor. Spartan is the latest example of Mamet at his best.

Val Kilmer stars as John Scott, some sort of secret agent though I'm at a loss to figure out who he works for exactly. Scott is first seen on a military training mission with a pair of recruits (Derek Luke and Tia Texada) acting out some exercise that is important to Scott but apparently not the audience. Once the exercise is over, Scott gets a phone call that takes him into the film’s real plot.

Scott is called in to join a task force to search for the daughter of the President, (Kristen Bell). The first daughter was kidnapped, the who and the what is a twist-laden trip into typical thriller territory except smarter and more interesting because David Mamet doesn't know how to do anything typical. First rate dialogue, whip smart plot turns, and a terrific cast make Spartan far better than the usual thriller fare.

In what some are calling a comeback performance, Val Kilmer shines, biting into Mamet's dialogue with the necessary sharpness and clarity. Anyone who calls this a comeback obviously missed his brilliant work in 2002's The Salton Sea, but then sometimes I feel like I'm the only one who ever saw that one. Scott is a rare part for Kilmer's recent outings, it's his first hero role since The Saint.

For Mamet, Spartan seems like an attempt to fit his rather esoteric style into a mainstream film. It's a surprisingly good fit. I have for years belabored the idea that even the most clichéd retread plot can be made well if written, acted and directed with intelligence and the commitment not to fall into the familiar rhythm. Spartan is a mainstream thriller with Mamet's brains in place of the usual thickheaded clichés and that works for me.

I'm tempted to compare Mamet to John Sayles in that both are the preeminent writers of my mind. However, Sayles is more of an artist than Mamet. Where Mamet has a longing for mainstream acceptance, Sayles has a more secular point of view. Sayles isn't interested in appealing to anyone other than himself, Mamet wants to appeal to the populace. It's a dangerous gamble because it can cause a director to compromise vision for demographic.

Thankfully Mamet isn't so desperate as to compromise, at least not in a film he directs himself. His writing assignments for others are questionable. Spartan is not a compromise but an uneasy entreaty into mainstream fare. Let's hope that its box office returns don't lead to future compromise.

Movie Review: Definitely, Maybe

Definitely, Maybe (2008) 

Directed by Adam Brooks

Written by Adam Brooks 

Starring Ryan Reynolds, Elizabeth Banks, Rachel Weisz, Isla Fisher, Abigail Breslin, Derek Luke, Kevin Kline

Release Date February 14th, 2008 

Published February 13th, 2008 

In his first mature leading man performance Ryan Reynolds becomes a star before our eyes in the terrific romance Definitely, Maybe. Call it his Sleepless In Seattle moment, Reynolds becomes the new millennium answer to Tom Hanks as he establishes his romantic leading man street cred opposite not a single Meg Ryan but three tremendous young actresses on three completely different star tracks.

There is the capital A actress Rachel Weisz, already a hairs breath away from Oscar. Elizabeth Banks, the comic character actress. And then there is Isla Fisher, who is still too young to know where her career is headed. Reynolds sparks with each and makes you believe that indeed one man could get that lucky in his life.

Definitely, Maybe stars Reynolds as Will Hayes an ad exec who has just received his divorce papers. He's been headed for divorce for awhile it seems. Will see's his daughter Maya (Abigail Breslin) on Wednesdays and Fridays and is on his way to pick her up as the opening credits wrap. On this particular Friday Maya's school is abuzz. Today the kids took a surprise sex education course and all are bursting with questions. All of this talk of sex has Maya wondering where she came from, not necessarily the technical details, she learned all too much of that, rather about how mom and dad met and how they are where they are today.

Dad is not so hot on telling the tale and thus devises the story as a romantic mystery, leaving Maya to guess which of three women from his past is her mother. There is Emily (Elizabeth Banks) not her real name, who was his college sweetheart. They split up when he went to New York. It's more complicated and messy than that but that comes later. Then there is the copy girl aka April (Isla Fisher). She makes copies for a living in the Bill Clinton for President campaign office where Will has come all the way from Wisconsin to work. Politics of the early to late 90's play a big part in Definitely, Maybe.

And finally there is Summer Heartley (Rachel Weisz), a woman from Emily's past who Will meets when he delivers a present to her from Emily. What that present is has all sorts of surprises attached. Summer is an aspiring journalist sleeping with her esteemed professor (Kevin Kline) when she meets Will. They bounce around each other a little before the girly crush on the professor passes and Summer wants to get serious. She and Will share a relationship with many twists and moments you will not see coming.

So which girl is really mommy? Which girl is also the ex? That is the mystery and the secret charm of Definitely, Maybe.

Writer-director Allan Brooks isn't teasing the audience or screwing with us just to keep us off track. What he devises, structurally and with these terrifically charming and smart characters, is a romantic mystery that in-trances and enchants.This seemingly typical romantic comedy defies convention by mixing three different romances and allowing us to guess, take sides, and hope for our favorite to win out. Leading the guessing game is 12 year old Oscar nominee Abigail Breslin. In yet another devastatingly cute performance, Breslin charms us into a romantic journey that would be lonely and a little dreary without her hopeful, doe eyed presence.

The humor of Definitely, Maybe is warm and comfortable. It emanates naturally from these characters without the force of set ups and punchlines. The skill of Brooks' script may not occur to you until much later when you realize just how invested you are in the outcome of this mystery. Listen for the subtle ways Brooks uses politics as an undercurrent of Will's emotional state. His optimistic investment in President Clinton's promise of hope in 1992 juxtaposed against his disillusionment with his love life and the scandal that engulfs Clinton's presidency. This sets up a final moment in the movie so subtle; blink and you'll miss it. It's a minor scene but it means so much if you follow the context of the film as a whole.

Definitely, Maybe doesn't necessarily break the mold of the traditional romantic comedy. Rather, like the best of the gentrified genre lot, it takes the typical and improves upon it. The formula is familiar, it's just better performed, filmed and crafted in Definitely, Maybe. Rather than limiting himself to what is expected of the romance genre, Adam Brooks goes in slightly off kilter directions. He tweaks the formula, changes the expectations and, by creating wonderful characters with just the right actors, he changes the dynamics of the formula romantic comedy, bends it to the will of his story and creates something special.

Indeed, Definitely, Maybe is something special in the romantic comedy genre.

Movie Review: Biker Boyz

Biker Boyz (2003) 

Directed by Reggie Rock Blythewood

Written by Reggie Rock Blythewood 

Starring Derek Luke, Laurence Fishburne, Orlando Jones, Djimon Hounsou, Lisa Bonet, Brenden Fehr

Release Date January 31st, 2003

Published January 31st, 2003 

How many actors have been hailed as the next big thing? Hundreds maybe thousands. How many of them turn out to be for real? Two, maybe three. Derek Luke, coming off his successful debut in Antwone Fisher, is getting that buzz right now. Does he deserve it? Maybe. But what is certain about Luke is that even if the buzz about his star potential wears off he can fall back on his acting, which is unquestionably strong. His first big budget rollout, the motorcycle racing picture Biker Boyz, isn't nearly as good as it's star but is greatly improved by his acting presence.

Luke stars as Kid, the son of a mechanic (Eric LaSalle in a minor cameo) who is a member of California's most successful bike-racing gang, The Black Knights. Kid's dad is the head mechanic for the King of Cali, Smoke played by Larry Fishburne. The title King of Cali signifies that Smoke is the top motorcycle racer in all of California. Kid is an apprentice member of the Knights until one fateful night when Smoke is challenged by a racer named Chu Chu (Terrence Howard) and during the race an accident kills Kid's dad.

Kid drops out of the Black Knight's but doesn't give up riding bikes. A few months after his father's death Kid is back on the underground-racing scene running a scam with a buddy named Stuntman (Brendon Fehr). The scam is that Stuntman pretends to be drunk and Kid, using his previous connections in the underground, tricks someone into believing the drunk guy has challenged him. However, after Kid is spotted with Stuntman, he is called in front of the leaders of the underground racing gangs who inform that if he is caught running a scam in their midst he will be killed. Only Smoke keeps them from killing him right then. 

Kid and Stuntman decide they are going legit and want to challenge Smoke for the King of Cali crown but to do that they must start their own gang and thus the Biker Boyz are born. Kid's riding attracts a large group of followers including a smoking hot tattoo artist named Tina (Meagan Good).  All of this is leading to a race between Kid and Smoke, but not before the film turns in a melodramatic twist that tests the audiences patience and the script's believability. The melodrama is on par with the lamest soap opera at a point in the film where the audience just wants to see the cool bikes and the racing.

Director Reggie Rock Blythewood too often let's Biker Boyz meander into the dramatic subplots involving Kid's mother (Vanessa Bell Calloway) as well as Smoke and Kid's father, when he should be taking advantage of the exciting race sequences.

Unfortunately, the racing sequences aren't even that exciting. Kid's first race has a great moment where Kid stands up on the bike and crosses the finish line first after entering the race well after it started. However, there just isn't enough racing. There are plenty of shots of motorcycles and shots of the gangs riding there bikes in formation down city streets. Still, none of these scenes evokes the energy that made the Fast & the Furious a fun and exciting ride.

One of the films biggest mistakes is it's soundtrack, which employs slow silky R & B tunes that suck the energy out of the racing scenes. In the films climactic race scene the filmmakers go with an orchestral score instead of a more appropriate rap or heavy metal tune. The orchestral score is sleep inducing and derivative. It's the same kind of orchestral flourish that accompanies the winning moment of a sports movie.

The films cast is populated by numerous recognizable faces in small roles including Orlando Jones, Lisa Bonet, Tyson Beckford, Lorenz Tate, Djimon Hounsou and Kid Rock. At times, there are so many recognizable faces it's like a Hells Angel's version of the Love Boat.  Larry Fishburne is beginning to show his age, looking paunchy and tired throughout most of the film. Let's hope he gets his energy and intensity back for the Matrix sequels later this year. 

No such problem for Derek Luke who brings the film an energy it desperately needs. His chemistry with love interest Meagan Good is strong and sexual. Luke is Biker Boyz's one great asset and I don't want to imagine what the film would have been like without him. Biker Boyz has been compared with The Fast & the Furious but the comparison isn't favorable. Fast & the Furious was big, dumb and loud but it had this energetic quality, a sort of kitschy machismo that made it funny and exciting. Furious used it's implausibilities to make the film funny in a stupid unintended way. 

Biker Boyz on the other hand is quiet in comparison. It wants to be taken seriously as a drama rather than capitalize on the hyper kinetic racing scenes and MTV-style editing that made Furious so much fun. Biker Boyz needs less melodrama and more adrenaline. Pump up the soundtrack and drop the subplots. Hire one of those X-Games directors and let racing be the film's focus and maybe Biker Boyz could work.  As it is though it's a dull film that provides a good vehicle for Derek Luke to show off his talent. Still, it isn't as good as it could have been. 

Movie Review Pieces of April

Pieces of April (2003) 

Directed Peter Hedges 

Written by Peter Hedges 

Starring Katie Holmes, Patricia Clarkson, Derek Luke, Isaiah Whitlock, Allison Pill 

Release Date October 17th, 2003 

Published October 24th, 2003 

It's been a terrific year for first time directors. Artists such as Catherine Hardwicke (Thirteen), Fernando Meirelles (City of God) and Peter Sollett (Raising Victor Vargas) made their debuts in exciting and memorable fashion. The same can be said of Peter Hedges whose debut feature Pieces of April is a guerrilla-style DV feature made with the catering budget from one days shooting on The Matrix. A visually unspectacular character piece that works because of a smart script and the acid tongue acting of Patricia Clarkson.

The title character is April Burns (Katie Holmes), the black sheep of her upstate New York family who ran away at an early age to New York City and has never looked back. After years of aimless drifting and a tenuous relationship with her family, April is finally in a stable enough situation to reconnect. With the help of her new boyfriend Bobby (Derek Luke), April has invited the family to her tiny apartment for Thanksgiving.

April's family isn't all that excited about the holiday excursion to the big city. Joy Burns (Clarkson) has little interest in reconciling with her oldest daughter of whom she claims to have no positive memories. Youngest daughter Beth (Allison Pill) can't stop complaining about the trip, her and April are far apart in years and have had no contact since April left. Timmy (John Gallagher Jr.), April's little brother, has little interest in anything outside the purview of his camera and the haze of pot smoke. April's dad Jim (Oliver Platt) is the only one in the family who has maintained any contact with April. Agreeing to go to April's for Thanksgiving seems to be entirely his effort and he holds the trip together over the loud protest of his kids and the biting wit of Joy.

There is far more to this story than a daughter trying to reconnect with her family. The impetus for the attempted reconciliation is revealed in an episodic way with a little bit of information leaked out as the focus shifts back and forth from the family road trip to April's failing attempts at cooking, including some especially humorous encounters with her neighbors. With a busted oven, April is forced to run from door to door, soliciting help from anyone who will listen. 

Finally April is aided by an African-American couple, Evette (Lillias White) and Eugene (Isiah Whitlock Jr.), who take their cooking far more seriously than April. Also helping, in a way, is Wayne (Sean Hayes) who allows April to use his oven when Evette and Eugene need to use their own for their dinner. Wayne turns out to be way too weird and flaky and April is finally helped by an elderly Asian family who don't speak English but luckily have a visiting family member who does. April's aborted attempts to explain Thanksgiving to them are funny and a few of Holmes's best scenes.

Patricia Clarkson's much praised performance is unquestionably the film’s centerpiece. Her ascorbic wit and spitefulness is explained by the fact that Joy is dying of breast cancer and that this will very likely be her last Thanksgiving. The last thing she wants to do is spend it with the daughter who has been such a painful disappointment, especially since the dinner will more than likely be another disaster to add to the list. Clarkson's performance is painful to watch as she says horrible things about April who does not deserve most of the jibes. We are forced to forgive Joy her mean spirit because she is dying and we do but it makes her jabs at April and her attitude towards all of her family all the more disheartening.

Director Peter Hedges, who received a much deserved Oscar nomination for his adapted screenplay for About A Boy, writes a story sketch for Pieces of April and then turns loose his terrific group of actors to make something of it. With a seemingly bare bones sketch of dialogue, the actors make some obvious improvisations that make the film feel real.

That effect is also brought out by the handheld DV camera and minimalist locations. The minimal lighting, ambient soundtrack, and miniscule budget are straight out of the Dogme 95 movement. While it's not nearly as accomplished as anything by Lars Von Trier and his Dogme crew, Pieces of April invokes a sort of Americanized version of Dogme. It incorporates the realities of American filmmaking that simply won't allow a filmmaker to follow the rigid Dogme rules.

Pieces of April is in spirit a Dogme film and the attempt to subvert the usual Hollywood style of filmmaking is a welcome sight. The film is also an affecting, funny family drama with terrific acting and writing that marks a terrific directorial debut for Peter Hedges. I hope that he will continue to be as interesting with a film that has a budget bigger than the cost of Peter Jackson's morning latte.

Movie Review Glory Road

Glory Road (2006) 

Directed by James Gartner 

Written by Chris Cleveland, Bettina Gillois, Gregory Alan Howard

Starring Josh Lucas, Derek Luke, Jon Voight 

Release Date January 13th, 2006 

Published January 12th, 2006 

Filling the yearly niche of the inspirational sports movie is the historical record of a true turning point in the history of collegiate basketball. Glory Road is the story of the 1966 West Texas University Miners who upset the powerhouse Kentucky University Wildcats to become national champions. The victory was notable because Western coach Don Haskins started five African Americans, a first for any college basketball team. If the movie were as relevant as its inspiration we might have a real winner here. Unfortunately a director for hire, working under the auspices of the Bruckheimer regime, only turns out a formula picture that hits the notes of importance and never becomes important on its own.

In 1965 Don Haskins (Josh Lucas) was coaching girls high school basketball somewhere in the dust bowl of Oklahoma when he was offered the head coaching position at tiny Texas Western University. Though the job was low paying and Haskins and his wife (Emily Deschanel) would have to live in the men's dorm, with their two young children, the job was his first chance to coach Division 1 men's basketball. He could not pass up the opportunity.

Packed off to the scorching hot oil fields of El Paso Texas, Haskins had no plans on making history. He simply wanted to put a winning team on the court. The fastest way to improve the Texas Western Miners team was to do something that few other programs in the country were willing to do. Actively recruit several African American players.

By 1966 college basketball had long been integrated but there was a basketball equivalent of Jim Crow laws in place, off the books. As described by the teams long time trainer Ross Moore, (Red West) teams, especially in the south, had African American players but usually no more than one. If a team had more than one black player they were only allowed to play them one at a time unless the team was losing. Having more than two African Americans on a team was simply unheard of for a southern school.

Haskins actively recruited and ultimately acquired seven African American players including a pair of high school superstars, Bobby Joe Hill (Derek Luke), and David Latin (Schin A.S Kerr). Texas Western first made history for being the first NCAA division one team to have more African American players than Caucasian but, of course, as history tells us, there was plenty more history to be made. As the season went on, and team and coach melded to each other's style of play, the team was nearly undefeated and finally faced off with the legendary Adolph Rupp (Jon Voight) and his Kentucky University Wildcats for the national collegiate basketball championship.

Glory Road is a typical Disney/Bruckheimer sports film. Like The Rookie and Remember The Titans before it, Glory Road has a particular formula to execute and anything else is merely extraneous. The key to formula filmmaking is not necessarily to subvert the formula, though that would be welcome, rather it is to improve upon the formula with casting and execution. Unfortunately director Rod Gartner is unable to capitalize on either of those elements.

Gartner sticks to the job at hand which is simply moving Chris Cleveland's very basic script to the screen with minimal innovation. While the basketball scenes are impressively shot and edited and move with great speed and skill, when Glory Road leaves court it's all about tugging the heartstrings. Scenes in Glory Road play like signposts instructing the audience to sigh here, laugh here, or cry here. The script banks on the real life importance of this story to give the movie gravity and in the process never earns that gravity on its own.

The story of the Texas Western Miners of 1966 is a sports and cultural landmark deserving of an enshrinement on film but if deification is Glory Road's only ambition we might as well be watching an ESPN documentary on the real team and players and save the movie theater ticket price.

A year ago Coach Carter filled the role of the obligatory inspirational sports movie. The difference between that film and Glory Road however is that where Glory Road assumes its importance from its true story, Coach Carter earned its importance with stronger characters and better storytelling. It definitely helps that in the lead role Coach Carter had the weighty presence of Samuel L. Jackson while Glory Road lives with the less impressive Josh Lucas.

Watching Josh Lucas I get the impression of Hollywood trying to sell me something. Since his breakthrough performance in the dreadful romantic comedy Sweet Home Alabama Lucas has been given a couple of opportunities to become a movie star and has demonstrated that he just doesn't have it. It's not that he is a bad actor, his performance in the little seen indie Around The Bend demonstrates his real talent, what Lucas lacks is star presence.

The rest of the cast of Glory Road struggles as much as Lucas. The young actors who make up the team are thinly drawn and fit the formula roles required of a formula film. There is the funny one, the troubled one, and the loner. With so many characters and only so much screen time the caricatured players tend to blend into one another and become forgettable.

In the role of Coach Haskins' wife Emily Deschanel seems terribly miscast. Like her more independent minded younger sister Zooey, Emily Deschanel carries an innate intelligence and presence that, in this case, overwhelms her tiny underwritten and ultimately insignificant role. Casting Deschanel in this role is a mistake not because she isn't a very talented actress, it's the opposite of that. Because Deschanel is so talented we expect more from her and are greatly disappointed that the filmmaker does not take full advantage of her talent.

Glory Road, like most uplifting Hollywoodized histories, takes liberties with its subject. While Texas Western was the first team to win the national title starting five black players, it should be noted that in 1956 San Francisco University lead by Bill Russell won the title with four African American starters. I don't mean to diminish the importance of the true story of Texas Western but as scripted the film can seem false by implying.