I think Woody Harrelson has saved my sanity. Well, to be sure, Woody and the amazing cast of “Champions,” who reminded me that there are such things as kindness, joy and positivity in the world. After the last four years, I was beginning to wonder.
Harrelson plays Marcus, a former minor league basketball coach dreaming of an NBA slot. But one night in Des Moines he gets into a minor collision with a police car and is sentenced to community service – coaching a team of kids with intellectual disabilities.
It’s a diverse group. Benny lives on his own and works in a restaurant. Johnny never bathes, but has a gorgeous sister named Alex, played by Kaitlin Olson. Marlon is colorblind. Another kid is a welder in a vocational school. Others have various speech and movement difficulties. Then there’s Cosentino, a girl who seems to know everything.
They call themselves The Friends, and they don’t play to win. The psychology of when and how to dribble, pass or shoot is unimportant to them; they just enjoy being together.
You’ll see the team around town, playing on public courts and making more friends.
Marcus, meanwhile, has designs on Alex (who is a Shakespearean actress). How will that work out?
Meanwhile, Marcus can’t resist trying to instill a foreign sense of competition in the team and starts talking about going to tournaments and such. One such will be held in Winnipeg. Will they get there?
Director Bobby Farrelly has taken the story from the Spanish film “Campeones” and brought it to the English-speaking world in a delightful, funny, even thought-provoking piece that will leave you feeling much better about life than when you walked in. I guarantee it.
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