It is rare when a remake is better than the original, but I boldly claim that the 2023 iteration of White Men Can’t Jump fits this description.  In the first version from 1992, Gloria Clemente (Rosie Perez) leaves her boyfriend, basketball hustler and liar Billy Hoyle (Woody Harrelson), after he gambles away money she loans him on a tournament.  One can argue that it is deserved, but the Catholic and romantic in me always wished they would find a way to reconcile.  Trust is a tricky thing.  The one Person we can all trust is God, but that seems increasingly hard for many.  Instead, we place our confidence in other broken people, which is not bad, but is statistically more likely to end in some kind of betrayal.  How we react to that depends on too many factors to enumerate in this review.  You can give the one who wronged you another chance, or you can react as Gloria does.  I favor the former, as long as your own Faith and heart are intact, which is why I prefer the 2023 iteration of today’s film.  After you read my synopsis, perhaps you will agree?

For young seventeen-year-old Kamal (Anthony Hamilton Jr.) in White Men Can’t Jump, the notion of anyone betraying him is far from his mind.  With his father, Benji (Lance Reddick), by his side, Kamal appears set to ascend quickly through the college ranks and into the National Basketball Association (NBA).  Ten years go by and the adult Kamal (Sinqua Walls) is playing pick-up games in his old high school gymnasium.  In other words, things did not work out as he hoped.  We later learn that this had been the result of an arrest as a senior, going into the crowd to assault a heckler making fun of him and the single father who raised him.  On this particular afternoon, the oddly dressed Jeremy (Jack Harlow) has come to the same court to work with one of his clients.  As a former Gonzaga recruit who never made it due to knee injuries, he uses his skills to train other young hoopers.  Jeremy looks over at Kamal playing on the other side and sarcastically offers some pointers on the latter’s jump shot.  Jeremy also recognizes Kamal, but the former high school star prefers to not give in to such attention.  Instead, Kamal bets Jeremy on five made shots from anywhere on the floor.  In addition to being talented, arguably Jeremy’s greatest asset is his mouth.  He trash talks throughout Kamal’s shots, causing Kamal to miss the last one.  Jeremy proceeds to make all his attempts and take home $300.  Kamal is not pleased by this result, and he takes his anger to his job delivering packages, slapping the phone out of customer’s hand who wants to take a picture of him.  His boss is not pleased by this behavior, though he is contrite because he has a family to support.  He has a son with his wife, Imani (Teyana Taylor), and she works out of their home as a hair dresser.  Her hope is to save enough money to purchase a business front in which to open a proper salon.  Despite the riskiness, she is also supportive of her husband’s attempts at making some money on the side by hustling basketball games, provided he also has a steady income.  The same cannot be said for Jeremy.  He lives with his girlfriend, Tatiana (Laura Harrier), a dance instructor with aspirations of choreographing for bigger productions.  She wants to plan a future with Jeremy and sees basketball as taking away his attention from their hopes and dreams.  He thus tells her that he is going to stay focused on his clients, including his own line herbal supplements and teas.  Yet, he is secretly betting on basketball games he goes around Los Angeles playing with Kamal after they meet again at a fitness center where Jeremy sometimes works.  Throughout this period, they have to learn to put aside their differences, mainly on the basis of race, in order to be successful.  They have some success in this department, but it is Benji who points out to them that they have more in common than they realize.  For the moment, their goal is to raise enough money to enter a tournament where the take home prize is $25,000.  They are successful in getting the entrance fee, and Jeremy tells Tatiana that he is about to bring in some serious money so that she does not have to worry about him if she takes a job elsewhere.  Unfortunately, on the first day of the competition, old issues with Kamal and the reason for his arrest resurface.  It causes him to not only play poorly, but to lose his temper with Jeremy.  Kamal choking Jeremy is captured by many cell phones and posted on social media, leading to Kamal being fired.  Tatiana finds out about it too, and leaves to work elsewhere with the status of their relationship unknown.  As for Imani and Kamal, she is wondering what the next move for them will be when they get a call from the hospital saying that Benji had to be admitted.  Sitting bedside with his dying father, Benji reminds his son that he will always be with Kamal, and that basketball is the young man’s true passion.  With that, Imani offers to give a significant portion of the cash she intended for the salon for Kamal to enter into a three-on-three tournament with a $500,000 grand prize.  Waiting outside the gate is Jeremy, who apologizes for his behavior and is given a spot as an alternate on the team.  He is eventually called upon to play until he reaggravates his old knee injury in the last game.  At the same time, Kamal sees Imani depart from the stands, and he guesses correctly that it is because of Benji.  With his dad on his heart, Kamal hits the game and tournament winning shot.  Before the end credits roll, we see Jeremy propose to Tatiana after asking for forgiveness for lying, and Kamal get a chance at the NBA.

What is ironic about Kamal making it to the professional level at the end of White Men Can’t Jump is that this had been Jeremy’s dream throughout most of the film.  While training others, he had also been dulling the pain of his injuries with pills and taking stem cell drugs in the hope of repairing the damage.  Regarding the aches he feels, Jeremy reasons that life is too short to be hurting, physically speaking, all the time.  This idea is problematic from a Catholic point of view, as is the use of stem cells to heal the body.  The Church is against their use because they are taken from human embryos, which means the destruction of a human life.  That is never permitted.  More specifically, the purposeful killing of one person to save another is prohibited because both lives are equally precious in God’s eyes.  One might argue that this is little different from being an organ donor, and this is something that Catholicism supports.  There are a few variances to be underscored.  First, an embryo is a human life, and thus has the same right to life as any of us.  Secondly, a person who chooses to be an organ donor after their death is doing so of their own volition.  An embryo does not have the ability to make that choice, and in many respects, that is frightening.  Now, I have made a lot out of what is a fairly minor point in the plot, and bless Tatiana for voicing her concern over Jeremy’s use of this so-called medicine.  However, her objections are based more on her perception that he is trying to hold on to something that could be a stumbling block to their happiness.  As such, a broader Catholic argument can be made about knowing what God is calling you to at a particular moment in your life.  Jeremy is living in the past, trying to force a change with questionable practices to attain something that passed him by rather than focusing on the present.  It has been said that it is called the “present” because it is all God gives us, and it should be more than enough for anyone.

It appears as though this reboot of White Men Can’t Jump was not enough for the critics, who universally panned it.  As I mentioned in the introduction, I like it because it has a happier ending.  It does have a lot of cursing and some other off-color humor, no pun intended, but nothing that is over-the-top.  Indeed, there is an unnecessarily graphic nude scene in the original that this latest version avoids.  Even if nobody else does, I recommend this iteration.