About the movie
More Than a Game
Rating: 
Cast:
Willie McGee; Romeo Travis; Dru Joyce III; Dru Joyce II; Sian Cotton; LeBron James
Directed by:
Kristopher Belman
On the web:
READER FEEDBACK
‘Game’ drops the ball on LeBron James bio
As an account of LeBron James' late childhood and high school career, "More Than A Game" is less than a movie, or at least less than a full-bodied documentary.
The movie is being pitched to kids and teens, and they'll absorb obvious and proscribed lessons about hard work and friendship.
Many adults, on the other hand, will wonder why documentarian Kristopher Belman left so many gaping holes in what should have been a relatively straightforward work of history and biography.
Belman began filming James when he was in high school, and has accumulated footage of James playing competitive basketball as far back as junior high school.
"Game" begins with the formation of a local AAU basketball team featuring James and three neighborhood friends, coached by one boy's devoted father.
Thanks to James out-sized talent and the quartet's work ethic, the unheralded team from a single Cleveland neighborhood goes on to contend for a top prize at a national tournament among teams stacked with citywide or statewide talent.
The David-Goliath tone begins to shift, however, as James and friends forsake the local public school for a nearby private institution - it's said the move causes hard feelings in the local black community, but Belman does not seem keen to explore this rift.
It's one of several moments in the film when you get the feeling he's a little too close to James, who wants to be burnished as well as bio'd.
By the time they are freshman and sophomores, James and company are Goliath, statewide champs and cocky. By the time they're juniors, they're arrogant and poised for a fall, and "Game" communicates an instructive lesson in overconfidence.
There isn't much drama in the team's rededicated mission to reclaim the state championship, and although "Game" also positions this as a quest for a "national" championship, it is not very rigorous on the question of whether such a championship exists, or should exist. (Given the travel requirements, do these kids ever study?)
Still, despite its evasiveness, "Game" manages to emerge as a moving study of the power of friendship - when LeBron and company had little else, they had each other, and they had a devoted coach. To a kid without much money or any kind of father, one steadfast friend or one mentor can make a world of difference.
Produced by Harvey Mason Jr., Kristopher Belman, Matthew Perniciaro, Kevin Mann, directed by Kristopher Belman, written by Kristopher Belman, Brad Hogan, music by Harvey Mason Jr., distributed by Lionsgate.
