Amazing Grace and Chuck

A pacifist fable, in which a Little Leaguer and a basketball star ("Amazing Grace" Smith, played very nicely by Alex English) protest the world of nuclear arms by refusing to play their respective sports and thus start a worldwide peaceful protest. William Peterson (“To Live and Die in L.A.” and “Manhunter”) gives a nicely understated performance as the Little Leaguer's dad, an Air Force reserve pilot who at once admires his son’s actions and is appalled by them. When I first heard about this picture, I somehow got the idea that it was an amateur effort (literally), maybe put together by Greenpeace or something. This is not the case. The picture is reasonably accomplished, if hardly a landmark in the art of cinema. Facile overtones and solutions aside, it may say something about integrity and commitment. The picture draws you in, it makes you care about the people in it, and that adds weight to a picture whose plot is less conceivable by far than the wildest science fiction film ever made.