O Jogo Da Esperança

The Basket is one of the best movies I have seen in a long time. It was not only beautifully filmed, but the story was as deep as you looked. It didn't need fancy special effects or thrills - just solid film making at it's best.

I actually stumbled on this film. My wife and I heard about this movie via word of mouth that it was a must see. Two weeks later by some stroke of luck it was playing at our local theater. When the movie ended I couldn't help to think what happened with the distribution of this movie. It deserves much more screen time and exposure than it has received. If I hadn't heard about this movie from a friend, I may never have seen it. It was Fantastic!

This sleeper deserves to be seen, I enjoyed it as much as "Life is Beautiful" that got so much aclaim.

My wife and I thoroughly enjoyed this film and strongly recommend it.

Although containing some troubling lapses in plot and story integrity, The Basket engaged me and drew me into the lives it portrayed in a small-town, set in a confusing era of American history. The anti-war sentiments of a hustler-turned-schoolteacher seemed a bit too post-modern and the "inclusive" message a bit overdone, but the cast turned in marvelous performances in this quietly dignified story that celebrates the value of community--a counterpoint to our contemporary society that tends to embrace and celebrate the individual at the expense of the good of the whole. Well worth the watching!

The director had big ambitions ,trying to get into the plot a lot of things ,including opera,WW1,peace and love,and the hackneyed topic of (team ,naturally) sport-as -favoring-the -integration-of-everyone(by the way,what about people who do not like team sports?I'm sure there are).The results are dubious,being rather pretentious,using an intrusive loud music and melodramatic tricks .At its best,it recalls the "little house" series -do not get me wrong,I love the Michael Landon series-,with its church where people gathers not necessarily for prayers ,Agnes's mercantile which recalls Oleson's (and the actress resembles Katherine McGregor,the unforgettable Harriet Oleson),and its depiction of humble people .

But the characters are superficial and neither Peter Coyote nor Karen Allen can bring some life to this music lover teacher and this mother in distress.Besides after the introduction,Allen disappears from the screen for about thirty minutes.The script is sometimes confused,there are scenes which do not bring anything to the main plot (Peter Coyote's past for instance:for a while ,he did not seem to be a goody-two-shoes anymore)Pointless flashbacks -to make us understand that war brings destruction and death for instance-.

"Little houses" thirty years after.Or something like that.

The Basket is well worth your time. The story is well told, the scenery is beautiful, the music is haunting, and the characters believable. We went to see it because it was filmed nearby and we wanted to see if we could recognize the landscape and buildings. We went back a second time because we wanted to show a visitor from Russia a well made American movie (without fear of embarrassment over language or content). Irena may not have understood all the dialog, but she sure understood the story and the message. The Basket far surpasses our parochial interest.

This was a video store closeout, and a remarkable find. The best part first. Having had relatives and in-laws who lived there in the time, this looks and feels real. The horse drawn harvester, to start with. The blue sky and tufts of clouds, the golden hills and pines - not fake at all - it's the northern Palouse in early fall. The attitudes of the people are just what I'd expect. Suspicious of anything new or foreign - Spokane was the IWW headquarters just prior to this period, and dangerous radicals such as Joe Hill(strom) wandered all through the basin making trouble for the established citizenry. WWI had a huge effect on Northwest labor history, and the tension between loyalty and freethinking was strong. Yet there was also the great thirst for culture, and a pre-mass media naivete, in these places - a yearning for art perhaps inspired by living in the midst of great beauty. Finally, all those stark white houses, churches and schoolhouse sitting forlornly out in the wide open. The movie gets ALL of this right.

Sadly, there isn't much of a story to complement the pictures. The problem with small town life is that it was boring, and it's hard to find a believable story with a lot of drama that fits. Focused on the relationships only, this might have been something like A River Runs Through It or Napoleon Dynamite (both of which play against similar scenic backdrops). Focused on the sports story, perhaps Hoosiers. Focused on outsiders fitting in, perhaps Days of Heaven. But muddled all together, it comes out like a string of TV episodes, like Little House on the Prairie. Very melodramatic, with all the music swells and dramatic incidents that usually precede a commercial.