Some documentarians have all the luck. They start with a rich subject–two, if fortune favors those behind the camera. They follow the subjects around for several years. And they end up with a hell of a story.
“The Heart of the Game” is one of the lucky ones. For seven years filmmaker Ward Serrill tracked the ups and downs of a particular Seattle high school girls basketball team. Crucially, though, he had the personalities to dramatize, without cant or false valor, the team’s ever-shifting dynamics. Don’t let the PG-13 rating mislead you (the film got it for one player’s use of one word, one time). If you or any kid over the age of 10 has even a half-interest in the definition of the word “teamwork,” as well as the words “real-life suspense,” this is the movie.
The team is the Roosevelt Roughriders, representing a mostly white, mostly upper-middle-class Seattle high school. The coach is a fellow named Bill Resler, who makes his living teaching tax law at the University of Washington and who brings his own dynamically bizarre mixture of ferocity and empathy to the team-building challenge.
In his first season, bearded, pudgy Resler turned the Roosevelt girls into killers–tough, aggressive players who responded like fiends to their coach’s courtside reminders to “Sink your teeth in their necks! DRAW BLOOD!” Yet he knew how and when to back off: He honored his team with the concept of “the inner circle,” allowing the girls to focus on the game at hand or resolve conflicts outside the realm of parents or even Resler himself.
“The Heart of the Game” has a second major character. She is Darnellia Russell, who joined Resler’s team as a 14-year-old freshman. This teen phenom, an African-American whose on- and off-court demeanor is that of a whip-smart, impulsive adolescent with greatness in her, struggles at first with her mostly white teammates as well as her studies. Yet as she and Resler learn to figure each other out, the team grows increasingly formidable–as does its ongoing rivalry with the crosstown Garfield Bulldogs.
Some terrific supporting players come and go in “The Heart of the Game,” notably Devon Crosby Helms, a tall, grinning Roughrider who tells the camera that basketball is “fun” because “war is fun!” This young woman’s story takes a corkscrew turn (not to be revealed here), one of many that infuses Serrill’s documentary with the hooks and surprises of a good suspense tale.
The filmmaker doesn’t bring anything new in terms of technique to this project. What he had was time and access and a certain emotional intelligence to bear. Resler’s the primary focus, and he’s eminently camera-worthy, although you may find yourself wanting a bit more of Russell.
(Update: She has now finished her second year of North Seattle Community College basketball, and was MVP both years.)
Unlike “Hoop Dreams,” this film stays largely on the court and addresses racial and sociopolitical issues on the fly–not dishonestly, but not in depth.
Yet what’s there is highly engaging. Since its premiere screening at last year’s Toronto International Film Festival, “The Heart of the Game” has been picked up by Miramax for distribution.
Serrill has cut the film by eight minutes and replaced the original narrator with Chris “Ludacris” Bridges.
The trims are judicious, and the results are hard to resist. The movie is the documentary equivalent of one of Resler’s full-court presses, wherein a screaming wall of teen athletes is coming at you, ready for a meal.
`The Heart of the Game’
(star)(star)(star)1/2
Directed, written and photographed by Ward Serrill; edited by Eric Frith; music by The Angel; narrated by Chris “Ludacris” Bridges; produced by Serrill and Liz Manne. A Miramax Films release; opens Friday at Landmark’s Century Centre Cinema. Running time: 1:37.
MPAA rating: PG-13 (for brief strong language).
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mjphillips@tribune.com
