Love and Basketball bring together Monica Wright (Sanaa Lathan) and Quincy McCall (Epps), who grow up next door to each other and become rivals, friends, and lovers as they grow up. Monica is as good as a basketball player as Quincy, but while he is fêted and sought after by recruiters and groupies, she is all but ignored. Even her own mother praises her not when she wins a game, but when she gets dolled up for a high-school dance. Monica makes all the right decisions, plays by the rules, works hard, but the best she can do is to play in an overseas women's league. I never thought the WNBA would bring tears of joy to my eyes, but it did in this movie.
Lathan and Epps are both terrific separately, and they have great chemistry together. The supporting cast is solid, including Dennis Haysbert as Quincy's father (it's obvious where Quincy gets his yumminess from) and Alfre Woodard as Monica's mother. As far as I'm concerned, Spike Lee, who produced this movie, has hereby redeemed himself for his previous shabby treatment of women characters. I have a few quibbles: there are too many scenes set to a "meaningful" song (the music in general often drowns out the dialogue) and the cathartic scene between Quincy and his father is directly followed by a cathartic scene between Monica and her mother. These confrontations seemed rather overwrought to me, but it might have been because, just before they happened, the film reels got screwed up, and we had to sit in the sweltering auditorium for half an hour while they fixed it, so the rhythm of the film was broken. Also, the film loses points for allowing screen time to Dick Vitale and for missing the obvious answer when Quincy and his father are debating which school he'll attend. His father insists on the quality of the education and suggests he talk to Princeton again; he replies that no Ivy League school is going to go all the way and is set on USC (as if!). I mean, hel-lo! Ivy League-quality education, Final Four-quality basketball team? Well, maybe Coach K wouldn't let them use Duke after he saw in the script that Quincy leaves school early.
I don't mean to give the impression that this film is a humorless rant about how women's sports get the shaft, because it's funny and undogmatic, and I think you'll enjoy it even if you're not a basketball fan (you poor misguided thing) or a feminist (you poor misguided pig). I saw this as part of the DC International Filmfest, but it will be getting a nationwide theatrical release in a few weeks, so you should be able to find it at a theater near you. I highly recommend that you try.
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