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"He Got Game" Movie Review

Rating: 2-stars

Review by Bjorn Thomson

Have you ever seen a movie that has no idea what its main characters are really like? Whether they would like red meat, cry at phone company commercials, or fart silently in a crowded elevator? The kind of film where all that you know about the characters is what you’re told outright, rather than what you’re shown through actions and beliefs which seem to flow naturally from their personalities?

He Got Game, the new film by Spike Lee, is that kind of movie. It begins by introducing us to Jake Shuttlesworth (Denzel Washington), a convict with a passion for basketball. We see Jake effortlessly hitting 20-foot jumpers while presided over by a stone-faced armed guard. Jake is called off the court and summoned before the prison warden, who occupies one of those boiler room offices we only see in the movies, an office crisscrossed by ductwork, with files and junk-store cabinets strewn over the cracked concrete floor.

The warden is being pressured by the governor to release Jake for a few days. You see, Jake’s son, Jesus (Ray Allen), is the number one high school basketball player in the country. The governor, who is a powerful supporter of Big State, the local NCAA team, wants Jake to talk Jesus into signing a letter of intent, and is willing to reduce Jake’s sentence if he is successful. Jake accepts the terms of the deal.

But there is a serious obstacle to Jake’s task. Since he was imprisoned because he murdered Jesus’ mother, Jesus is understandably reluctant to talk to him. So Jake must take it slow. Although Jesus is violently resistant at first, he does of course soften. No matter how much hostility he harbors toward Jake, Jesus misses having a father around. Especially since he is a few days from the deadline for declaring his choice of college. And the basketball star, though he is surrounded by advisors, both family and friends, still hasn’t decided where to go.

So, throughout the first two-thirds of He Got Game, Jake lays the groundwork for his proposal. He appears genuinely interested in Jesus’ life. He’s humble, reasonable, and is willing to back off when Jesus ask him to. We start to like Jake — he seems like he’s trying to pull his life together and he even takes time out of his busy soul-searching, son-convincing schedule to start a tender relationship with a hooker (Milla Jovovich) who’s getting knocked around by her pimp.

And then, about two-thirds through the film, Jake inexplicably starts to act like a guy with a very serious neural disorder. He offers Jesus’ girlfriend, Lala (Rosario Dawson), pay-off money so that she’ll join him in his campaign to get Jesus to sign the letter of intent. He beats the hell out of Lala’s boyfriend-on-the-side. Then he starts strong-arming Jesus’ friends.

Meanwhile, Jake is seen walking the streets, guzzling from a 40, with a dangerous glint in his eye. We logically ask ourselves: Huh? What happened? Did this lightning transformation occur because of tensions inherent in the character? Or is Jake suffering from a bipolar disorder? Does Lee have any idea who this character is?

Jake is not the only character who appears to suffer from a serious screenplay-dictated mental illness. Jesus’ uncle, who helped raise the teenager since his father exited the scene, demands money from Jesus in a singularly unconvincing way. First, he lays on the sweetness, reminding him of the depth of family bonds. Then he goes off on a tirade about shadowy “deals” that Jesus has been making behind his back, claiming that Jesus has been conspiring to cheat him out of his rightful share of the spoils-to-come. He begins to shake, spit flies from his mouth. We conclude that this man is insane.

Now, I am willing to believe that many people with close relatives who are about to become multi-millionaires might want to squeeze whatever they can, using whatever methods possible, from that relative. But by presenting the uncle as a paranoid-schizophrenic, the intended message is diluted. Instead of feeling creeped-out, hurt, and indignant about the uncle’s behavior, we are simply bewildered. Again, we fairly ask: Huh?

There are, besides the weakness of characterization, many serious problems with He Got Game. The dramatic rhythms are roughly TV-movie quality. For example, Lala is seen talking on the phone with Jesus. A hand reaches over her shoulder and rests there. The owner of the hand begins to kiss her neck. And then, as the conversation ends, Lala smiles and says “I love you, Jesus.” This is the work of a lazy screenwriter, who, instead of developing Lala’s character through nuance, simply inserts a stock sympathy-destroying scene. We are intended to think “Oooohhh!!” and to despise Lala.

In addition to its low-rent dramatic pacing, He Got Game is hampered by distracting, MTVish vignettes. Like Romeo and Juliet and Natural Born Killers, He Got Game uses dramatic-cutaway shots to illustrate what its characters are doing and saying. For instance, when a gangster warns Jesus about the dangers of women, we see about half-a-dozen shots of large-breasted women being pleasured in a variety of settings and positions. Then the gangster starts talking about drugs. So Lee cuts to a horrific drug den. We see extreme close-ups of needles plunging into veins. It all adds up to unimaginative, hammer-handed film-making.

Basically, He Got Game is a dull slog through familiar territory. The awfulness of the film is particularly glaring when stacked against Hoop Dreams, which tells essentially the same story. Hoop Dreams is moving, joyful and entirely unforgettable. He Got Game, on the other hand, is a bloated film from a once-great director in decline.