Pride

Kyle Smith's review in the New York Post of Pride, about black competitive swimmers in the '70s and their coach (Terrence Howard), is headlined "Diff'rent Strokes," which pretty well sums up the movie in two words. Most other critics use a few more words, but their reviews remain rather terse. Perhaps it's because they've all seen versions of the same movie before. As Jan Stuart writes in Newsday: "There comes a time in the career of every leading man when he is called upon to play a coach in an inspirational sports drama. Despite their true-life origins, these McSport movies have less in common with genuine athletic events than with jigsaw puzzles that have been cut into square, magnetized pieces that snap into place as soon as they drop out of the box." Similar words drop out of other critics' boxes. "The trouble with Pride is that it sticks so close to the sports-movie playbook that it never comes alive," comments Jason Anderson in the Toronto Globe and Mail. Nevertheless, Howard receives plenty of praise for his performance as Philadelphia swim coach Jim Ellis. Writes Glen Whipp in the Los Angeles Daily News: "Howard's work rescues a movie that, from what I can gather from interviews with Ellis, is a complete work of fiction." Or as Michael Phillips remarks in the Chicago Tribune: "Out of a foamy sea of inspirational-sports-film clichs, Terrence Howard pulls Pride to safety."