The 4th Annual SEX! (now that I have your attention) Blogathon: Love and Basketball

A couple of years ago I took part in a very cool blogathon, the SEX! (now that I have your attention) Blogathon hosted by Movie Movie Blog Blog. It's an annual thing, so I meant to take part again last year, but I missed it. I wasn't going to do that this year. My only issue was figuring out what movie to do. That gets a bit complicated because the blogathon is NOT about sex, but still being sexy. I'll let our host explain:

Rules

Your blog entry can be about any single movie, as long as it fits the following criteria.

1. You need to write about an entire movie that you find sexy, not just a single scene. The upside-down kiss in the 2001 Spider-Man movie was undeniably sexy, but unless you can make a case for the entire movie being a turn-on, please don’t write about it.

2. The movie you choose can be from any era (even silent), but it needs to be a movie that subtly suggests sex. No writhing, naked bodies, and no explicit dialogue about how much one person wants to go to bed with another.

That’s not to say that your choice can’t be a modern movie with adult dialogue. If you can make a solid case for something like, say, Body Heat (which was a modern homage to 1940’s-style movie sex), I’ll accept it.

3. Explain why you think the movie is sexy. Your explanation does not have to be lurid or explicit, just a simple description of why the movie “does something” for you. - MovieMovieBlogBlog

I've seen a number of movies that fit the criteria, but when pressed, I had a hard time thinking of any. At least, I had that issue for a little while. Then I thought of two. I won't say what one of them is because I might use it next year. The other one, the one we're going to focus on today, is Dell family-favorite - 2000's "Love and Basketball."

The short answer to why I think this movie is sexy is right there in the title, LOVE and Basketball. This truly is a love story in every sense of the word. The feelings of our two main characters are painfully developed over the course of a couple decades, starting when they're in grade school. We meet them as they meet each other on a neighborhood basketball court. The film lets us know this isn't going to be just another movie where an alluring girl falls for the local jock by quickly establishing the fact that the girl, Monica (played brilliantly by Sanaa Lathan), is a better basketball player than the boy, Quincy (Omar Epps). Throughout the rest of the film, it's clear that basketball plays a huge role in both of their lives. This means that regardless of how they each feel about the other, there is something else in their own lives that demands their attention. Neither becomes a character only their as a prize for the other.

Having basketball as such huge chunks of their individual and collective existence also means that these are people with hopes, dreams, and aspirations that they must consider in addition to their love for one another. Whichever path each person chooses will require a measurement of sacrifice not common in movie romances. The entire film is cognizant of that fact and manages to do something many films try but fail miserably. With all they have going on in and around their relationship, we don't just realize, but actually feel that these two people cannot live without each other. Over the course of their lives, we see when they're their for one another and the disappointment when one of them can't be there. We see how the choices they make affect the other person. All of it embeds itself in our hearts, rather than just glide across our screens.

Perhaps I'm a hopeless romantic, but there is something inherently sexy about seeing two people who didn't just hop into bed together, but have clearly worked hard at their relationship. They've gone through the hardest and darkest periods to actually reach the light at the end of the tunnel. That's what Love and Basketball gives us. It's a film where we're not just told a couple falls in love, nor is it a movie where it all happens in the space of a weekend. This love is a lifetime in the making. There are good times, bad times, and worse times. By the time we get to the end...SPOILER ALERT...the relationship they share is fully earned. Mrs. Dell and I are not a perfect couple, but we've been together ourselves for over 20 years. We appreciate and find inspiration in the struggle of other couples who make it. And unless a sequel tells us otherwise, Monica and Quincy have made it. Even though we're not explicitly told this, we believe their story ends "happily ever after."And when Mrs. Dell and I watch a couple go through as much as they do and come out smiling, there's a decent chance we'll be...um...stimulated to...uh...express our feelings.

Click here for more of my Blogathon entries.