There’s a lively all-star lineup here and, theoretically at any rate, a great true story from American sports with all the relatability your heart could desire. But this film winds up looking like the most expensive in-house corporate promo in history: shallow, parochial and obtuse. By the time the credits roll, we’re apparently supposed to be euphoric – not so much at individual sporting achievement, but at all the billions of dollars that Nike has been making.
In the mid-80s, a Nike executive called Sonny Vaccaro dreamed of signing up basketball star Michael Jordan to promote the revolutionary new Air Jordan sneaker, which was to be designed entirely for the basketball player – an integral part of his brand identity. Converse and Adidas had more money to offer, so Vaccaro drove to Jordan’s family home in North Carolina on a risky mission to bypass Jordan’s lawyers, agent and management team and instead befriend Jordan’s formidable mother, Deloris.
Matt Damon gives a cordially undemanding performance as Vaccaro, but Michael’s mother Deloris Jordan is played by Egot legend Viola Davis with all the charisma and force you’d expect – which is to say, more charisma and force than the rest of the cast put together. For some reason, however, she is hardly in the movie at all. The relationship between her and Vaccaro doesn’t really feature, and her personal life with her husband, James (Julius Tennon), is evidently not interesting enough to merit much or any screen time - unlike all the grinning, besuited execs such as Nike CEO Phil Knight (played by director Ben Affleck), marketing director Rob Strasser (Jason Bateman), Nike’s NBA liaison Howard White (Chris Tucker) and Jordan’s own aggressive sub-Jerry-Maguire agent David Falk (Chris Messina).
Jordan himself does not appear on screen, which is an interesting and legitimate artistic decision, but his mother, the most compelling character, is reduced to a cameo. Air could have an audience with diehard basketball fans, but it’s frustrating. It might, however, be interesting to show it as a double bill with One Man and His Shoes, Yemi Bamiro’s recent documentary about the Air Jordan phenomenon.
• Air is released on 5 April in UK and Irish cinemas.
