Sweetwater Reviews

Sweetwater feels like a missed opportunity. Martin Guigui's film goes over the life of Nat 'Sweetwater' Clifton, the first African American to sign an NBA contract; a film that continuously falls flat on its face through the 114-minute run time. Many of the decisions are just mind-boggling, and the biopic is worse off every step of the way. This feels like a move made by a bunch of old white guys patting themselves on the back for letting the first black player into the league. Clifton's story always feels like an afterthought, which is a shame because many NBA fans today have no idea who he was.In 1949, the NBA did not allow black players into the league. Every year the Harlem Globetrotters, an all-black team, would take on the "best" teams in the country and usually beat them. Joe Lapchick (Jeremy Piven), the coach of the New York Knicks, and Ned Irish (Cary Elwes), the owner, decided that they wanted to sign the Globetrotter's best player, Nat 'Sweetwater' Clifton (Everett Osborne). This did not go well at the owner's meeting, as the idea of signing a black player was blasphemous to the league. With some hard work and determination, the New York Knicks were able to buy out Sweetwater's contract from his Globetrotter's coach, Abe Saperstein (Kevin Pollak). Now, all they have to do is play him, but it might not be that easy.Watching Sweetwater is agonizing; Guigui knows he has your attention and decides to tell a clustered story that never really pays Sweetwater any respect. Little tidbits about Sweetwater's life are placed between scenes of coaches and owners fighting, but there isn't enough story development for viewers to feel connected to the titular character. Sweetwater's life story is told at a blazingly fast pace, and even though a few little flashbacks into his childhood are shared, they are not enough to develop any real attachment to the character. Apparently, Guigui thought it was more important to show Joe Lapchick at the dinner table agonizing over his battle to get Sweetwater into the league.The music in Sweetwater is also bad, almost to the point where it is laugh-out-loud funny. Any time there is a touching moment, Sweetwater will look at his hands and a melodramatic score starts to play in the background, almost like this film was made by a group of high school students trying to parody the moment.Although it was stated above, it needs to be stated again - Sweetwater is a missed opportunity. This is the story of the first black player to ever sign an NBA contract, and the audience will leave the theater feeling nothing. Hopefully, Nat Clifton's story will get a Hollywood do-over, because this one fails to move the needle.