# He Got Game (1998)

### reviewed by
Chris Loar

    He Got Game
    Directed by Spike Lee

    A film review by Chris Loar

Call it "Spike Lee's LAST TEMPTATION OF CHRIST." Or, rather, of Jesus -- Jesus Shuttlesworth, Jesus of Coney Island, Brooklyn's hottest hoopster, 1998's top NCAA prospect. This Jesus, as the film opens, is experiencing the greatest temptations of his life -- making choices about where to go to college, whether to move directly to the pros, and how to balance what he needs to do for his family's sake versus what he'd like to get for himself.

Into this complex mixture of good and evil walks a complex man -- whether Jesus' savior or his Antichrist isn't immediately obvious. This man is Jesus' father, Jake Shuttlesworth, played with perfect pitch by Denzel Washington. Jake's out of prison, temporarily; he's been serving a fifteen year prison sentence, and he's just been offered a chance at a sort of redemption. The governor of New York is a huge hoops fan himself, and he's offering Jake a very special deal: if he can get Jesus to attend the governor's alma matter, he'll see if he can't reduce Jake's sentence a little. Jake accepts the offer, naturally enough, but he doesn't seem very optimistic, and we soon see why -- he is, to say the least, estranged from his son. We quickly learn that while Jesus wants to do the right thing, he's not at all sure that that includes getting his pop out of jail early.

This, in a nutshell, is the setup for Spike Lee's HE GOT GAME -- basketball movie, father-son story, religious allegory, all in one. It's a little contrived, yes, and a little predictable, certainly; but it is, nonetheless, a real pleasure to watch -- energetic, heartfelt, and engrossing. We're immediately sucked in by Lee's obvious love for the visual energy of a basketball game; he holds our attention with his overall brisk pace and with Denzel Washington, who's never turned in a better performance. He shows us Jake's contradictions and his complications; he's a man who wants the best for his son, but also desperately wants what's best for himself, and that inner struggle is what gives the film most of its emotional resonance. (Washington's strong performance is more than enough to carry his costar, Ray Allen, who's strong on the court but could really use an acting coach.) Lee also tosses in a couple of fine bit parts for Ned Beatty and John Turturro.

The film's plot isn't as easy to admire, and it has been criticized for being a bit rambling. I'm not sure that's entirely fair; the criticism is, I think, due to the mistaken assumption that the film is, first and foremost, about a father-son relationship, or about basketball. It isn't. The game referred to in the title isn't just basketball -- it's also about the game of life, where all relationships can be tainted by the drive for power, or the love of money. The film raises the question of whether any relationship -- even between a loving father and a loving son -- can ever be free from taint, and the answer seems to be no. But Lee's script is nonetheless optimistic, suggesting that a contaminated, complicated relationship doesn't preclude real intimacy and caring. He drives this point home with a seemingly disconnected subplot featuring Jake's relationship with a neighborhood prostitute, Dakota Burns. Jake buys Dakota's time and favors, but the taint that implies isn't absolute -- the somewhat unlikely couple manage to cultivate a genuinely caring relationship in spite of it.

There are, on the other hand, any number of very fair criticisms to be made of HE GOT GAME. Washington's performance is so powerful, and the script so slanted in his direction, that the role of Jesus is overshadowed -- the script doesn't create a very convincing character, and Allen doesn't have the experience or skill to create one for us. And Lee does make some unfortunate choices -- the film's epilogue has a syrupy tone that's reminiscent in an unpleasant way of the tacked-on conclusion of 1990's MO' BETTER BLUES, and his experiments with film stock and lighting might better have been left to Oliver Stone.

But the most serious criticism of the film has nothing to do with Lee's technique. The unfortunate fact is that, while engrossing and enjoyable, the film isn't especially challenging or thought-provoking. HE GOT GAME is a world apart from SHE'S GOTTA HAVE IT; Lee's early work, free from the demands of the mass market, was consistently challenging and stimulating. GAME has a much more pre-digested feel. It dissolves on the palate, light as a communion wafer; yet someone, it seems, has their eye on the collection plate. No relationship is untainted, certainly, least of all a filmmaker's relationship to his audience; but it's still a small sin against cinema that the film isn't more challenging than it is.

    (c) 1998 by Chris Loar

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