I was unprepared for how much I enjoyed the understated sports romance Just Wright, in which producer/star Queen Latifah gets a rare chance to be more than just a personality on screen. In the role of Leslie Wright, a single physical therapist and avid New Jersey Nets fan (the movie's biggest element of fantasy is putting the Nets in the NBA Finals), Latifah displays a previously unseen facility for romantic longing. She also gets to play that rarest of all roles in American movies, that of a single woman genuinely fulfilled by her career. Leslie would love to meet men as easily as her friend Morgan (Paula Patton) of course, but there's a new house and plenty in her life that keeps her busy. (Is Just Wright the first movie in which a character takes advantage of the depressed housing market?)
Leslie's life is changed by a chance encounter with Nets point guard Scott McKnight (Common). McKnight may be the most unbelievably sensitive pro athlete ever put on screen, he's a closet pianist and can confidently discuss the works of Joni Mitchell and Charles Mingus. Common seems like strange casting for this role, but he finds all sorts of unexpected notes of vulnerability that make his relationship with Leslie more than just a story about a working girl striking it rich. Speaking of rich, Paula Patton's Morgan is an unapologetic gold digger; it's to Patton's credit that despite her aspirations to the lifestyle of NBA wife we don't hate her for (almost) the entire movie. Just Wright is a movie about adults making adult choices; it's really no surprise you probably haven't seen it.
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