Gina Prince-Blythewood's Love and Basketball

* * (out of 4)

Point for point, Love and Basketball plays a game we’re familiar with. There are no new dazzling moves on this court, although a few sideline players step up from the bench and emerge as likable and charismatic lead actors.

The film stars Omar Epps and Sanaa Lanthan as a boy and girl who are neighbors, play some b-ball together, fall in love a la Taming of the Shrew while outwardly hating one another, then they wind up going to the same college…and then…and then…they break up. Each pursue their dream of becoming an NBA superstar, struggling with broken hearts and unspoken desire. Fate (or the screenwriter) conspires to bring them back together. Will their competitive free spirits keep them apart?

The plot is so familiar that as soon as you see the opening scene with that little boy and girl playing in the driveway, you can predict everything which follows. The girl’s mother (Alfre Woodard) wants her to stop being a tomboy, and the boy’s pop (Dennis Haysbert) is pushing him to go for his education first.

The supporting cast is rounded out by the tough love coach in college, the girl’s competitive teammate who begrudgingly grows to respect her, and a slew of dimbo-bimbo girlfriends for the Omar Epps character that stand in the way of true love.

While painfully routine, like going through the motions of running familiar laps on a track which has become all too familiar, you can’t beat good performances. I haven’t seen Sanaa Lanthan in anything before, but found her to be able to project a character thinking through the game. It’s amazing how few actors out there can do this well – actually manage to convey a character using their head to think through a situation. (Harvey Keitel comes to mind, and he’s a lot less attractive than Lanthan.) She’s also got a tough reserve, an intensity which she keeps in check and doesn’t overshoot. Hopefully, she’ll get better work in the future.

A real team player, Omar Epps serves every scene to her, underplaying as much as possible. He’s got an effortless naturalism, never striving to act in the big dramatic moments the film lays out for him. The poor guy has been saddled with roles in junk like this and The Mod Squad. He’s a fine actor waiting to break out.

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