Mar. 20, 2007 - Issue #596: Monkey Warfare

Inspired acting is something to take Pride in; formulaic script is not

The first sequence, set back in North Carolina in 1964, has determined young African-American college athlete Jim Ellis (Terrence Howard) trying to swim in hostile waters, surrounded by hateful competitors and a crowd of murmuring whiteys. “Why don’t you get out of our nice clean pool!” one shouts above the din. The whole thing ends badly, with Jim losing his cool and lashing out at the arrogant cops who try to make him leave from where he rightfully belongs before we fade to black.

But the name of the movie is Pride, the opening title card proudly declaring that it is “Inspired by True Events” and it’s enveloped from top to bottom with one of those “inspiring” scores—you just know Jim is going to triumph over adversity sooner or later. To be precise, 10 years later, when Jim finds temporary employment packing up an all but abandoned Philadelphia community centre (with a pool!) surrounded by kids just waiting to be, well, inspired.

The generic template for the feel-good super coach movie is not to be messed with by director Sunu Gonera or his team of writers. There’s the ghetto kids in need of guidance, the requisite nerdy one who stutters and cries, the requisite tough one who only responds to tough love—there’s even the “bookish” one, recognizable because he wears glasses. And there’s the tripartite bad guys: the faceless city who wants to close the centre, the local oily pimp who wants to suppress the kids from rising above their caste and a portly, racist white coach, called The Bink (rhymes with “Dink”) fronting the swim team to beat. It’s all mapped out in the textbook style with a dire dearth of variation. The climax is wildly belaboured. The characters are grossly underdeveloped. The love interest subplot, “true events” be damned, feels weak and artificial. The dialogue is frequently superfluous. An entire scene consists of The Bink explaining to his team, “If we win, we’re champions again. If they win, they become champions.” Thanks, Bink.

However, Howard, who believed in the material enough to sign on as executive producer (perhaps as a socially acceptable antidote to Hustle & Flow), suffuses his swim coach with weepy, trembling, complicated emotions. He’s almost weird, and it’s kind of interesting.

His crew, not just the kids but the goofy community centre manager played by Bernie Mac (who tosses in a few solid gags), goes a long way toward selling this go-for-it corn. The set-up is so unbelievably formulaic that the genuine charm and aplomb of its players makes for several unexpected smiles. But the funk and soul classics on the soundtrack don’t hurt either. V

?Opens Fri, Mar 23
Pride
Directed by Sunu Gonera
Written by Kevin Michael Smith, Michael Gozzard, J Mills Goodloe, Norman Vance Jr
Starring Terrence Howard, Bernie Mac, Kevin Phillips, Kimberly Elise

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