O               (2001)

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*** of ****
Rated: R
Length: 95 minutes
Writers:
  William Shakespeare (play)
  Brad Kaaya (screenplay)
Director: Tim Blake Nelson
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Cast:
  Mekhi Phifer: Odin James
  Josh Hartnett: Hugo Goulding
  Julia Stiles: Desi Brable
  Elden Henson: Roger Rodriguez
  Andrew Keegan: Michael Casio
  Rain Phoenix: Emily
  John Heard: Dean Brable
  Martin Sheen: Coach Duke Goulding

Synopsis:
An elite southern private school is a basketball powerhouse that has recruited it's one and only black student who becomes popular.  The resentment of the coach's son builds to where he hatches a plan to manipulate people into a web of suspicion that will lead to the new kids down fall and more.

Review:
The strengths of this film lay in what is there while its weaknesses lay in what is absent.  The 95 minute run time is enough to tell the story with only a couple loop holes (scarf), but it doesn't contain some character development that is really needed to solidify the story.  The direction is paced well for this story, and keeps the tone edgy enough that the end isn't a total shock.  One thing that should have been done differently is when shots were done of Phifer & Hartnett standing next to each other, efforts should have been made to hide the fact that Phifer, Odin, is only about 5'10" as compared to Hartnett, Hugo, at 6'3."  Heavily recruited basketball prodigies aren't that short.  The use of racial issues was rather light, but so was everything that wasn't directly a part of the story.  We have clues that Odin's past has some problems, but that's all.  We see why Hugo is acting out in a cold destructive manner, but what eliminated his other possibilities.  The supporting characters are used well to build the basic story, but not much more.

The camera usage made us an observer at the scene which serves well for this story.  Since this was all shot on location, there wasn't much room to have moving cameras anyway.  The sound was decent, and made it easy to tell that they weren't on a sound stage.  The sound track was very good for the movie, and used a lot of minor notes, destructive lyrics, and foreboding melodies to help heighten the mood.  The use of sound isolation during the slam dunk contest was effective at making the following events more intense.

The casting was well done as they all do their jobs well, and they blend together very believably.  Mekhi Phifer was great as Odin, and made it an empathic decent into madness for the audience to watch.  Josh Hartnett did very well as the subdued Hugo as he plots and mopes to the end.  This sort of makes up for the abysmal
Peral Harbor.  Julia Stiles was a fine Desi as she is in love, then baffled, and finally betrayed nearly always while being very convincing.  Elden Henson as Rodger did great at the difficult task of being the patsy outsider, and he is one to watch in this film.  Andrew Keegan handled the back and forth situations of being victim and victimizer very well.  Martin Sheen did well with the wrong direction.  The coach is always screaming when basketball is involved without regard to the situation.  He portrayed a convincingly detached relationship with his son while keeping up appearances of involvement.

This is basically a good film that could use a little fleshing out.  The lessons that jealousy and deceit cause major harm was very obvious.