Engineer Gregory Box said all models are wrong, but some are useful. Meaning that if it is simple, it won’t be accurate, or if it is very complex then you won’t be able to understand it. The idea can be transformed for films, simple stories can be easily formulaic, but they can still be enjoyable.
Champions (dir. Bobby Farrelly, His first solo directorial effort, has made a few movies you might have heard of with his brother Peter, made Dumb Dumber, Me, Myself & Irene, and There’s Something About Mary to name a few) is based on the Spanish comedy Campeones. The American version is about struggling basketball coach Marcus (Woody Harrelson) who gets community service where he has to coach a team with intellectual disabilities.
I think you can tell where this is going. Marcus struggles with the annoyance of having to coach “down” when he thinks he should be coaching in the NBA. He can’t get the team to gel or follow basic basketball structure.
Complications appear and misunderstandings happen. The team keeps improving, and Marcus improves as a coach until his desire to join the NBA and coach where he feels he should undermine the team’s success. He hasn’t learnt anything and things go south, quickly.
Now, this sounds very cliche, and it is, and usually, I would end the review here and give some quasi-polite platitude about how hard films are to make and how at least they tried, but this one was really sweet.
Woody Harrelson is a great actor and carries the film. The team has lots of great and different characters who are not portrayed as people to feel sorry for because of their disabilities but just people living their lives confronting their specific challenges with great attitudes and optimism.
No, this film isn’t reinventing the genre and does feel like somewhat of a throwback to when the Farrelly Brothers were in their heyday. However, it does have its merits. The team does teach Marcus a thing or two about life which helps him be a better man and so yes this movie is cheesy as an Italian restaurant, but it’s worth the watch.
13th March 2023
By Luke McMeeken-Ruscoe