Leading Ladies: January 2006

Glory Road

Stars: Josh Lucas, Derek Luke, Emily Deschanel
Director: James Gartner
Rating: PG

It's tough to avoid cliches with sports movies, and this one, about the real-life coach who made college basketball history by winning a national championship with the first all-African-American starting lineup, is rife with them, say the female critics.

Says Entertainment Weekly's Lisa Schwarzbaum, "It's only just a jump shot or two before Glory Road settles into its rudimentary, music-cued rhythms of classroom civics lessons punctuated by on-court action."

The Washington Post's Ann Hornaday says the film "consists of the usual sports movie cliches ‑- the fights, the tough love, the setbacks, inspirational speeches and ultimate triumph ‑- but first-time director [Gartner] executes them with terrific assurance, coming up with a film that begins as a fish-out-of-water comedy and ends as a rousing David-and-Goliath morality tale."

The Austin Chronicle's Kimberley Jones says it "really isn't a bad show ‑- it's just an obvious one ‑- and one wishes material of this historical import had received a more refined rendering."

Female consensus: Nice try, but the director tosses up an air ball

next : Last Holiday