Pride
Rated: PG
Runtime: 1 hour, 44 minutes
Directed by: Sunu Gonera
Starring:
Terrence Howard - Jim Ellis
Bernie Mac - Elston
Kimberly Elise - Sue Davis
Brandon Fobbs - Puddin Head
Alphonso McAuley - Walt
Regine Nehy - Willie
Nate Parker - Hakim
Kevin Phillips - Andre
Scott Reeves - Jake
Evan Ross - Reggie
While the inspirational sports film may never be a great place for subtlety, Pride thinks it has an audience so stupid that I was surprised that there wasn’t a title card telling people that they should use their eyes and ears to best view the film. This may seem like an exaggeration, but let me put it to you this way: the opening scene features a title card reading, “North Carolina, 1964”. Absolutely fine and standard. Then the next scene features a title card reading “Philadelphia, 1974.” Okay. But then there’s a quick addendenum reading “Ten Years Later”. Why not just bring on the cast of Seasme Street and we’ll play the counting game?.
From then on, it’s a great cast trying their best to fight against a world so simplisitc it may as well have been drawn in crayon. Terrence Howard stars as Jim Ellis, a former athelete swimmer and graduate of mathematics whose short temper makes it difficult for him to hold down a job. Also, the world is insanely racist, but we’ll get to that in a minute. He finds work to tear down an old rec center but instead decides to rebuild the pool because he loves swimming. When the city takes away the basketball hoop outside the center, the local kids come inside to swim and eventually form a team with Ellis and maintenance man Bernie Mac as their coaches. In the end, they learn an important lesson about…well, read the title, stupid.
While the events are based on a true story, the world is drawn so broad and events handled with such a heavy hand, that the reality feels cheap. The worst example is whenever there’s a swim meet. Apparently, whether in North Carolina in 1964 or Philadelphia in 1974, swim meets were a lot like klan rallies. I’m not saying racism didn’t exist or that this team didn’t have to overcome adversity. But because there’s absolutely zero subtlety, the events feel cartoony and you think that at any moment the opposing team is going to put white pajamas over their Speedos.
Once again, I have to applaude the cast. While I expected solid work from Howard and Mac, the entire swim team does a great job and form a recognizable individual despite the scripts neglect to make them anything more than one-word adjectivies. While the cast should certainly feel proud about their work in Pride, the writer and director should star in their own film called Shame.
Words by
Matt Goldberg
3.16.07