THE BASKET

Yes — and gladly. THE BASKET is a small film with a big heart, made far from Hollywood in Spokane, Washington, and it earns every bit of the praise it's drawing. It's the rare movie built around a sports game whose real victory is moral: two German orphans, a prejudiced town, and a schoolteacher who uses opera and a brand-new game called basketball to lead everyone toward grace.

The production quality rivals big-budget studio work, and the story is nuanced enough to carry real emotional weight without manipulation. A strong Christian pastor, sacrifice, and the slow overcoming of bigotry give the film a spine most family dramas lack.

The only content to note is mild: a few mild obscenities and some wartime violence that's present but not gruesome. There's nothing here that should keep a family away. If you want a profound, redemptive story that all ages can watch together, this is it.

During World War I, a new schoolteacher named Conlon arrives in a small Northwest town, bringing with him the newly invented game of basketball. The town is also home to two German orphans, taken in by a devoted local pastor, but resented by neighbors whose own sons are coming home wounded from the war overseas.

Conlon begins playing a German opera for his students each day — a story about a besieged town and a mysterious basket said to hold the key to victory. As the tale spreads through town, the real-life tensions between the orphans and their neighbors begin building toward something bigger than a schoolyard rivalry.

Four stars means this is filmmaking that punches well above its budget and its makers' experience. Despite being the work of first-time filmmakers, the source review says the production rivals a big-budget Hollywood film, and it favorably compares the movie's tone to THE STRAIGHT STORY and THE WINSLOW BOY — with the redemptive craftsmanship of THE SPITFIRE GRILL, minus that film's rougher language.

What stands out most is balance: the emotional orchestration of the characters is described as perfectly matched to a "brilliantly nuanced plot," rather than one overpowering the other.

This film exalts what Scripture exalts: mercy toward orphans, hospitality toward the outsider, and the hard work of turning enmity into peace. A strong pastor takes in two German children rejected by their own town, and the story's central tension is whether prejudice and grief will win out over compassion. Gambling appears in the story too, but the film only partially rebukes it — worth noting, though it's a minor thread next to the larger arc of reconciliation.

The path to that reconciliation isn't easy. The town's children have to overcome real alienation and bigotry before the story's grace can take hold, and the film doesn't pretend that healing is instant. That honesty is part of what makes the redemption, when it comes, feel earned rather than sentimental.

At its core, this is a story about walls coming down — between a grieving father and the children he blames, between a fearful town and the strangers in its midst. Scripture speaks directly to that longing: "For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility" (Ephesians 2:14).

THE BASKET is the kind of film Movieguide exists to point families toward: wholesome, well-made, and genuinely moving, with a redemptive heart that never feels forced. It earns its four stars and its place on family movie night. Our answer is simple: worth the trip.

— [Review