Air: Movie Review

Cast: Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Jason Bateman, Viola Davis

Director: Ben Affleck

A sports underdog story where the underdog is a major sporting company may not sound particularly enticing, but director Ben Affleck's sense of nostalgia and filmmaking prove to be a potent mix for Air.

Damon rolls out his everyman charm as Sonny Vaccaro, a basketball scouter and shoe salesman/ recruiter for the Nike company in the 80s. With pressure on him to sign a new talent for the company with Converse and Adidas sniffing around, Vaccaro reckons an 18-year-old talent Michael Jordan is where the company should hang their hat - but everything's against Nike securing their future.

With its 1984 setting and an opening reel that defines the pop culture from the time, through to an excellent OST that uses the decade's best songs to set the tone, Affleck is keen to be evocative rather than provocative with a biographical film that's high on uplifting tone, but lower in wider drama.

But while keeping a tighter focus on Vaccaro and the Nike crew proves to be compelling, it feels like the Jordan family are kept more at arm's length and with too much reverence. The end result is that, despite a powerful performance from a commanding Davis, they feel more like unknowns than they should be. 

It could be a case that perhaps everyone in the world knows who Michael Jordan is, but his relationship to his cinematic audience in Air is one of aloof mystery - and particularly so the one with his mother who drives so much of his story. Which may be understandable given it's about the underdogs of Nike.

Damon is winning in his doggedness, with his workmanlike charm proving to be character you need to cheer for. With humour and heart, Vaccaro emerges as Nike's saviour, but his humanity in his business interactions (as showcased in the opposing strokes proffered by Jordan's agent) gives the film a grounded edge it needs to be winning.

It's a human-fronted thriller that knows what it wants to do, and while there are moments of sagging and a feeling the soundtrack is doing a lot of the obvious narrative signposting, this is a crowd-pleasing story of rags to riches that benefits from an ensemble, and overcomes some of its occasional flaws.