Believe in Me (2006)

60% of critics liked it
(10 reviews)
66% of users liked it
(1,895 ratings)

Director/screenwriter Robert Collector adapts Newberry Award-winning author Harold Keith's fact-based tale about a 1960s-era girl's basketball coach who inspired his athletes to believe in themselves and always strive to reach their greatest potential. Clayton Driscoll was an assistant boy's… More Director/screenwriter Robert Collector adapts Newberry Award-winning author Harold Keith's fact-based tale about a 1960s-era girl's basketball coach who inspired his athletes to believe in themselves and always strive to reach their greatest potential. Clayton Driscoll was an assistant boy's basketball coach when he accepted his first official coaching assignment in the tiny, backwater Oklahoma town of Middleton. An urbanite whose devoted wife Jean is wholly supportive of the move, Clayton hopes that the peace of the country will give the couple the opportunity to start a family. Upon discovering that the team he is set to coach is a girl's team, however, Clayton's enthusiasm immediately sours. In the mid 1960s, in the middle of nowhere, girl's athletics could barely qualify as an afterthought to sports fans. The Middleton Lady Cyclones in particular, were an unmitigated laughing stock. Though Clayton is at first flushed by the ineptitude of his young players, his dubiety is soon tempered by the remarkable character displayed by the girls who want nothing more than to shine in the eyes of their coach. Upon recognizing the decency and resiliency displayed by his tough-minded team, Clayton gives the girls permission to become as passionate about the game as any boy would be. But not everyone in Middleton is so eager to see these young women behaving as aggressively and competitively as their male counterparts, and as Clayton liberates the girls in an attempt to take the state championships and in the process finds himself emancipated by his love for the team, town rainmaker Ellis Brawley launches a bitter campaign to bring about the progressive-minded coach's downfall. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Rating, Runtime: PG, 1 hr. 48 min.
Directed By: Robert Collector
Genres: Drama

In Theaters: Mar 9, 2007 Wide
On DVD: Sep 4, 2007
Studio: IFC Films

Critic Reviews

Michael Rechtshaffen, Hollywood Reporter
What the inspirational sports drama Believe in Me might lack in freshness, it nicely compensates for in heartfelt, winning conviction and spirited performances.
Louise Keller, Urban Cinefile
It may be formulaic, but has enough heart to be a winner,"
Sandie Angulo Chen, Common Sense Media
Sweet, feel-good sports flick is girl-powered.
Larry Ratliff, San Antonio Express-News
While it's not a classic high school basketball film such as Hoosiers (1986), Believe In Me tugs at the heartstrings with vigor.
Jeffrey M. Anderson, Combustible Celluloid
Collector can't resist a few cloying, motivational speeches from time to time, but overall, he comes in nicely under the radar.
Josh Rosenblatt, Austin Chronicle
Inspiration in Believe in Me comes early and often, and writer/director Collector never misses an opportunity for a heartfelt locker-room speech or joyful practice-session musical montage to tug at viewers' heartstrings.
Vince Koehler, Entertainment Spectrum
You will find it an evening well spent, uplifting with a lot of heartfelt feelings.
Cole Smithey, ColeSmithey.com
Whether based on fact or not, now is not the time for yet another feel good sports movie about a small town coach who battles against local public perception to take his team of misfits to the championships.
Gary Goldstein, Reel.com
Sincere, but insufferably dull.

Read all 9 critic reviews

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Featured Audience Ratings

Cynthia S

What a good movie. I have always loved a movie that we can cheer for the underdog, and be really happy for how things turn out. Jeffrey Donovan is wonderful in this.
Dean M

Heartfelt, winning conviction and spirited performances. This is the next true story of the basketball coach in the 1960s, since <i>Glory Road</i>, who coached the girls' sport is really emotional and encourage to support and share of the dream in a school team.… More
Heartfelt, winning conviction and spirited performances. This is the next true story of the basketball coach in the 1960s, since <i>Glory Road</i>, who coached the girls' sport is really emotional and encourage to support and share of the dream in a school team. Jeffrey Donovan does a magnificent performance as girls' basketball coach. In the scene of the pre-final girls basketball champion dinner table, the players gave their coach a special gift and presented him what they believed in him - that gave me some tears.
Walter M

In "Believe in Me," it is 1964 and Clay Driscoll(Jeffrey Donovan) and his wife Jean(Samantha Mathis) are moving to Middleton in western Oklahoma where he has been hired for his first head coaching job for the local high school basketball team. He is angry when he finds out… More
In "Believe in Me," it is 1964 and Clay Driscoll(Jeffrey Donovan) and his wife Jean(Samantha Mathis) are moving to Middleton in western Oklahoma where he has been hired for his first head coaching job for the local high school basketball team. He is angry when he finds out that it is the girls' basketball team, not the boys'. He calms down somewhat when he reads the fine print on the contract and finds gender is not specified. At the first practice, most of the girls quit, leaving the team shorthanded and they get off to an awful start. The team improves somewhat over the rest of the season, but they still only end up with six wins. That does not do anything for Clay's job prospects as the best he can do is an assistant job in another city with a shot at the head coaching job in a few years' time. Inspired by a true story, "Believe in Me" is an entertaining and sweet, not saccharine, movie that does admittedly overstep on a couple of occasions. And the ending of the climactic game is highly unlikely to say the least, but weirder things have happened, right? However, the movie is smart enough to bring up the occasional bit of strategy. Not only does the movie capture a time and place very well, it also subtly displays the first signs of the egalitarian nature of the 60's. All of the girls are given a chance to play based on ability, not status, and Clay is a part of the community, not above it. But this is only the beginning and change like the improved play of the team does not happen overnight. For example, 1964 may be the start of Lyndon Johnson's Great Society, but it will not be until 1972 that Title IX is passed by Congress.
Mark A

This was a real feel-good movie about a girl's high school basketball team in rural Oklahoma back in the sixties, long before Title IX levelled the playing field for women athletes. It is based on the true story of a legendary HS girls basketball coach who got his start in Sayre,… More
This was a real feel-good movie about a girl's high school basketball team in rural Oklahoma back in the sixties, long before Title IX levelled the playing field for women athletes. It is based on the true story of a legendary HS girls basketball coach who got his start in Sayre, OK. My wife's grandparents moved back east from Sayre during the Dust Bowl, and as a long time women's basketball fan, this viewer felt a special connection to the story. The actors were competent. The girls made one feel like they really did know how to play the game. Jeffrey Donovan played the coach with real passion. Bruce Dern was appropriately Machievellian in his attempt to humiliate and get rid of this coach who wouldn't be satisfied with the leftovers from the boy's program in terms of practice times and equipment. Ultimately, it is a story about heart and determination winning out over adversity and prejudice. Bravo! Brava! Cute idea using the original coach in a cameo, and for giving Diana Taurasi a bit part as well.
Lea L

sweet movie..