As inspirational sports movies go Crooked Arrows is fairly standard, what with its troubled coach, players who find it difficult to play as a team, unlikely rebound from adversity and ultimate triumph against all odds.  What distinguishes this movie as something a little different are the setting, which is upstate New York; the sport, which is lacrosse; the players, who are almost exclusively native Sunaquot Indians (a fictional equivalent to the Onondaga nation); and the ties made to the past (the very, very distant past) by writers Brad Riddell and Todd Baird, and director Steve Rash.

The screenplay is pretty much by-the-numbers in terms of its premise — the hard-luck, underachieving team taught to perform as a collective unit by an unlikely coach — and yet it is a formula that still has some power.  Joe Logan (Brandon Routh) is the unlikely coach, forced into the job by circumstance, greed and his father Ben (Gil Birmingham); Joe is a former (great) player who now knows less about the local prep school team than his young sister Nadie (Chelsea Ricketts), who has been coaching the team more or less by herself.  But, this being a movie, Joe reconnects with the sport, with his roots, with an ex-girlfriend (Crystal Allen) and, most importantly of all, with his spirit, and good things result.

Being a Native American tale, it is highly spiritual, and director Rash handles this aspect of the story with a firm hand, providing the film with its most impressive moments as the young men learn and engage with their history and that of the sport they so love.  Fresh inspiration is hard to come by in sports movies but it is difficult to deny that a team playing “the Creator’s game” for the honor of their ancestors has some serious mojo going for it.  I especially liked the quick cut flashbacks that bind the contemporary players to their ancestors of long, long ago, indicating that while the rules and circumstances have changed, the sport really has not.

The lacrosse scenes are exciting and filmed well enough that one can understand what is actually happening, but the real excitement lies within our connection to these characters and their spirit quest.  They are an easy bunch to like, especially Chelsea Ricketts as Nadie, who is really the movie’s heart and soul.  Certainly more could have been done with the story, tighter nuance provided, fewer clichés used, but what is onscreen is enjoyable and pretty well done.  ☆ ☆ ☆.  7 June 2012.