OxfordPress.com

Grade: B-

Verdict: It's all in how you play the game.

Details: Starring Omar Epps, Sanaa Lathan and Alfre Woodard. Rated PG-13 for profanity and sexuality. Produced by Spike Lee. 1 hour, 58 minutes.

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Review: That all's not fair in love or basketball is one major theme of the engaging romance Love & Basketball.

Divided into four quarters -- one of the film's clumsier touches that also results in it being about 20 minutes too long -- Love & Basketball charts the entwined lives of Q (Omar Epps) and Monica (Sanaa Lathan). They meet as kids in the late '80s when Monica moves next door. They quickly become rivals in a pick-up game of backyard basketball. It's immediately obvious they're both in love with the sport. That they may come to love each other -- well, what do you think the next three "quarters" are going to be about?

Produced by Spike Lee, the picture is both a breakthrough -- a well-rounded heroine who's not just curvaceous -- and a rebound to some old Spike formulas. Such as: using movies as a kind of pulpit. The film offers a humanist/feminist message that's much appreciated, but that doesn't make it any less preachy.

Still, Love & Basketball offers a pleasant double whammy of roundball and romance. Further, the off-and-on relationship between Monica and Q isn't the only off-court focus. Q is very much expected to follow in his father's (Dennis Haysbert) NBA footsteps while Monica tries (sometimes) to reconcile with her extremely traditional mom (Alfre Woodard, baking pies but still unable to stifle that Alfre glint in her eyes.)

Love & Basketball also takes an unapologetic, matter-of-fact look at gender bias in sports. Sure, things have changed somewhat, but while Monica may be as invaluable to her college team as Q is to his, she has no professional future in the United States (the year is 1993). To be able to make a living at what she both loves and does well, she has to go abroad, making her commitment to basketball even more complex. Should it be her whole life? Is it, she wonders, OK or even desirable to be "all about ball?"

Filmmaker Gina Price-Bythewood may not have scored a slam dunk here, but she's come close enough in that her film is never less than appealing. And her leads are all that and then some.

Most of us are probably already familiar with Epps. But the lesser-known Lathan (The Best Man) makes a lovely match for him, both as love interest and point guard. Besides, it's spring; we all need an airy romance. This one, even with its flaws, fits the bill.

— Eleanor Ringel Gillespie, Cox News Service