The story of O

>> The long-awaited basketball Othello falls flat

by GENEVIEVE PAIEMENT

There's something about jock movies that's hard to take. Maybe because they so often feel like insidious propaganda for the gigantic professional sports industry. This not to say that O, the latest teen Shakespeare adaptation is a full-on jock movie. It's also a teen movie with an interracial romance--think Ten Things I Hate About You meets Save the Last Dance meets something more treacherous. It's a present-day version of Othello set in a high school basketball context, with all that this entails. With jock films falling under such sub-categories as "deep jocks" (Jerry McGuire), "jocks are heroes" or "teen jocks are fun-loving and wholesome" (Summer Catch, Varsity Blues or any '80s football movie), O talks deep-teen-jock speak.

There are at least 20 minutes of bird's-eye-perspective scenes of slo-mo action on the court set to hip hop, cheerleaders leaping around, and enthusiastic (verging on orgiastic) crowd participation. There's even some steroid usage to add to the drama. Screenwriter Brad Kaaya is obviously close to his subject, having said that as a teen he was the only black guy in his high school, that he always related to Othello as a man of colour facing adversity, and that he loved basketball.

Kaaya's alter ego Othello, renamed Odin James and nicknamed "O" in the film, is a young black NBA hopeful from the 'hood, the only black student at a rich Southern prep school. O (rendered by Mekhi Phifer)is the most popular guy in school, with a girlfriend to prove it: Desi Brable (Desdemona), daughter of the dean and a white-bread, goody-two-shoes cutie with a bold streak. Trouble comes in the form of Hugo (the infamous, scheming, conniving Iago, played by Josh "Hunky" Hartnett). Hugo's daddy is the school's intensely impassioned basketball coach (Martin Sheen) who seems to love O more than he does his own son, whom he overlooks on the court as well as at home.

Hugo's deep-seated jealousy of O drives him to set in motion a plan to destroy him by ruining his relationship with Desi. Cue the scenes of Hugo lurking about, lying to various supporting characters, manipulating them to unknowingly bring about O's downfall. All this, you know if you did Othello in high school, culminates in murder and suicide. Which is why this film was made in '98 but shelved until now (the Columbine climate screwed up its distribution prospects).

Unfortunately, this centuries-old captivating tale of fatal deceit falls flat once it's dropped into the teen sports arena. When their testosterone flares up on the court, the elicited feeling is more like embarrassment than dramatic tension, although James is a talented actor and conveys his tortured emotions realistically. Cardboard characterization and complete lack of motivation leads us not to care one bit about these privileged young'uns and their superficial, twisted web of affairs. Add to this a disappointingly one-dimensional performance from Sheen (He's stressed! He's angry! He wants to win the game!) and, oh la la, what a yawnfest.

O opens Friday, Aug. 31