Monica (Sanaa Lathan) and Quincy (Omar Epps) are sports-mad neighbours with their minds set on a career in basketball and their hearts on a romance. But just as their careers take very rocky turns, so does their relationship.

And if you made it past the title, you probably stopped reading the first paragraph on the word 'sport' or the word 'romance'. But go see the film anyway because it is a little treat of a tale that is exciting, touching and even moving.

Quite brilliantly, the basketball backdrop is simultaneously irrelevant and yet vital. You do not need to know anything about the sport and you may not even come out a fan of it, but you do completely understand why it is so crucial to the lives of these characters.

First time director and first time film writer Gina Prince-Blythewood comes from a television background and, in a positive way, you can tell. For the film's strength is in its tiny touches about the characters and that's a hallmark of the better US teen series such as "Felicity", which she worked on.

Prince-Blythewood has made at least as good a film directorial debut as she has a film writing one, though, as with her cinematographer Reynaldo Villalobos, she has fashioned a fresh but restrained look for the movie. Trick shots abound, in every sense, but they are always there for a reason and they don't hang around long enough to be distracting.

Arguably this story is just very, very good television because ultimately it lacks the kind of universal sweep of a movie, but it is also a very personal and intimate portrait of these characters whom you quickly come to care about.