The way this was broken down into four quarters is a testament to Gina Prince-RockByTheWood's astute writing and directing. I saw this not as a 'black' movie, but rather as a movie about African-Americans and their dreams, desires, pains and triumphs as individuals and as a couple.

And the depths from where they came to where they ultimately went, from their beginnings as children to the adults they grew up into, was nothing short of amazing. I loved the depth which both actors in this film displayed, showing them not only as athletes and people, but also as they were with regard to their families as well. Nonethelss, this was also a film which touched my heart. And the story, of course, was set more in the recent past, from 1981 to the present.

And instead of one athlete, there were two, as Monica was a superior talent on par with Gavin Gray and Quincy McCall. And instead of football, the sport was basketball. Yes, there were differences, of course, with Quincy (Omar Epps, of whose work I have been a fan of since 'Juice' in 1992) and Monica (Sanaa Lathan, who has seemingly come from nowhere to emerge as a serious talent to be reckoned with on the screen!) both being African-American. I bring that up to start my assessment of Love and Basketball. Even with football enveloping all which had entwined their lives, the humaneness of those two characters could not be discounted, especially with Babs emerging into a more stronger character who came into her own as a woman and an individual toward the film's end. Instantly, when I watched this one, I could not help but harken back to Everybody's All-American, which had sports as an undercurrent to the central love story between Gavin and Babs streching a full quarter-century in spanning four decades.

Dreams and desire download