Air

Got a fact-based film where the outcome is known? Ben Affleck is your man.

After rising to the challenge of holding viewer attention with Argo, the director succeeds yet again with Air, a film where the stakes are somewhat lower than extracting U.S. citizens from Tehran during the Iran Hostage situation — but considering the suspenseful way Nike’s courting of Michael Jordan plays out, you’d think the business deal was also life-or-death.

For Sonny Vaccaro (Matt Damon), landing the Chicago Bulls rookie as a client indeed carries those implications, at least on a professional level. Following a promising start to his career at the company, he’s failed to ink any professional basketball players of note, leading CEO Phil Knight (Affleck, essentially playing himself) to wonder if straying beyond running shoes was a bad idea.

Now, it’s 1984 — as an entertaining opening montage set to Dire Straits’ “Money For Nothing” informs us — and prospects from the recent NBA Draft (including Charles Barkley, John Stockton, and a bunch of people nobody’s heard of since 1984) aren’t exactly inspiring Sonny or his comatose colleagues, none of whom seem to have watched a basketball game in their lives.

Despite the No. 3 pick’s intention to sign with Adidas, Sonny sees something in Jordan — subjecting UNC Tar Heel fans and haters alike to repeated viewings of the then-freshman’s NCAA Championship-winning shot in the 1982 finale — and dedicates himself to sealing the deal, knowing that if he fails at this admittedly Herculean task, his time at Nike is probably over.

The hilarious in-office banter between Sonny and director of marketing Rob Strasser (Jason Bateman) and executive Howard White (Chris Tucker) building up to this make-or-break decision is a pleasure to behold, but the debut script from Alex Convery hits its comedic apex in Sonny’s phone conversations with Jordan’s agent, David Falk. Playing the cutthroat rep, Chris Messina steals each scene with his profanity-laden tirades, and finds a game, witty competitor in Damon, whose cool head pushes Falk’s buttons to memorable ends.

These exchanges and Sonny’s more heartfelt, dramatic moments with Michael’s mother, Deloris (Viola Davis), when he surprises the family at their Wilmington, N.C., home show that the stars of Air are the writing and performances — not Affleck’s anonymous direction, easily the laziest of his career thus far.

But as the race to bring Jordan aboard intensifies, Convery’s dialogue turns hokier than Virginia Tech. The borderline holy reverence for a shoe comes off as heavy-handed, and the corniness isn’t helped by footwear designer Peter Moore (Matthew Maher, While We’re Young) being treated like some sort of holy man that Nike hides in its basement.

Viewers also have zero idea what Sonny and Rob are up to during their weekend-long push before the Jordan pitch meeting, and at the gathering itself, Sonny’s big speech that looks into MJ’s future is inspirational enough without the actual clips from his subsequent years that line up perfectly with Sonny’s words — a cringey choice that should inspire some serious soul-searching for Convery and/or Affleck.

And yet, the damn thing works. The character-rich foundation leading up to the eye-rolling finale lessens the sting of the filmmakers bungling the climax, particularly the joy of seeing Affleck and Damon working together again so soon after the under-appreciated The Last Duel. (And does Affleck’s direction need to be flashy? Sure, it could have added a welcome extra layer, but also might have impeded the flow of his central assets.)

But in addition to the humorous and heartfelt interactions at Nike, Convery nails what it’s like to love sports. In something as simple as the casual banter between Sonny and the basketball fan cashier at his local convenience store, the screenwriter illustrates the mercurial, know-it-all attitude of many sports enthusiasts, and stresses that talk is cheap — especially from armchair quarterbacks…er, shooting guards.

Grade: B-plus. Rated R. Now playing at AMC River Hills 10, Carolina Cinemark, the Fine Arts Theatre, Grail Moviehouse, and Regal Biltmore Grande.

(Photo: Amazon Studios)