Full disclosure, my in-laws who are both coaches for Special Olympic athletes insisted I see “Champions” - a movie about a basketball team made up of intellectually disabled players. Otherwise, it would have escaped my streaming "must see" list. Not for any reason other than Netflix did a poor job of promoting it and I had no idea it existed.
“Champions” is directed by Bobby Farrelly, the brother of Peter Farrelly otherwise known as the Farrelly brothers and responsible for films such as “Dumb and Dumber” and “Something About Mary.” Anything could happen with Farrelly as director, but in “Champions” (a remake of a Spanish film, “Campeones”) he goes for the heart strings rather than the fart joke.
The film starts off a little slow and a little dark, and Woody Harrelson’s character, Marcus, is not a person you want to spend five minutes with, much less two hours.
Even with Harrelson’s signature charm, his character is, well, gross.
He barely looks up from his computer as his one-night stand turned love interest Alex (Kaitlin Olson) gets dressed while he sits in bed. She makes it clear she has no
interest in anything more than sex, so don’t bother acting interested. Their tinder-initiated tryst ends there, but thankfully her character reappears. She’s a joy to watch.
Marcus is a minor-league basketball coach who has zero inspirational qualities. He’s arrogant, combative and all other cliches that apply. He gets a DUI which lands him
in a courtroom with a judge nicknamed Hanging Mary. She tells Marcus he can avoid jail time if he agrees to 90 days of community service coaching the Friends, a Special Olympics team at a recreation center.
Marcus’ big dream is to coach a major league team, so this offer isn’t easy to accept. But he does and that’s where the movie begins. The Friends, and the actors who play them, especially Madison Tevlin as the brassy Cosentino, the team’s only female player, and Kevin Iannucci as Johnny, the anti-showering brother of Alex, are stars. When they’re on the screen it lights up.
The film is predictable as sports films go, but what’s not is how intellectually disabled people are portrayed. It was a celebration of empowerment and empathy with a lot of laughter. The funniest moments came from the players themselves. Harrelson just sat back and let them shine.
I only wish the film spent more time with them, at their homes, and off the basketball court.
In one moment, during a locker room speech, Marcus tells his players they are champions, win or lose, because of what they put up with every day. Sadly, that’s the truth. And the reason to watch this film.