Murderball

This is certainly a worthy documentary, but did not excite me as it has many. Its virtues may have seemed surprising seen fresh, but coming festooned with lavish praise, made me wonder what the fuss was about. Maybe my enjoyment is held back by medical squeamishness, though the matter-of-factness of its approach to quadriplegia is the film’s salient strength. The film also rolls past most of the cliches of competition stories, to peer into the community of the limbless that lies behind the sport of wheelchair rugby. Well worth watching on a number of levels, this doc did not strike me as an exemplar of the genre, for which public enthusiasm is now rising to meet my own. (2005, dvd, n.) *7* (MC-87, RT-97.)