Ice Cube has never been an even passable actor, and his previous efforts to make family films have ranged from uncomfortable to unwatchable.

But "The Longshots" breaks the mold in a big way.

All he needed was a talented co-star to play against.

In "The Longshots," that comes in the form of a 14-year-old girl. The girl is Keke Palmer, who is every bit as impressive here as she was in "Akeelah and the Bee." She is at an awkward age for actors -- actually, she is at an awkward age for anyone -- but so far she seems to be sailing through.

Palmer stars as Jasmine, a bookish and sullen middle school student with no friends. When her mother (Tasha Smith) has to take more hours at work, she asks her unemployed, aimless brother-in-law Curtis, played by Cube, to look after her.

Curtis was once a star football player, and he still carries a football with him wherever he goes, like Linus' security blanket. An errant toss from the local minister (an ill-used Garrett Morris) reveals that Jasmine has a pretty good arm. All she needs is a little coaching, and what better coach than her Uncle Curtis?

This story is true, although writer Nick Santora has apparently fudged a few facts for dramatic effect, and it is heartwarming and triumphant. It is not just the story of a girl finding herself through sports, it also shows a struggling small town regaining its own identity.

This point is hit perhaps a bit too hard by director Fred Durst, but he -- hang on, wait a second. Fred Durst? The lead singer of Limp Bizkit? The man who sang "You act like a whore/So just drop dead"? That Fred Durst is making an inspirational family film?

Yes he is, and for the most part he does relatively well at it. Sure, he has the typical underfunded issues with lighting, and one low-angle scene showing Curtis and Jasmine talking is particularly ill-advised. And the football scenes might have been shot without so many edits to make them flow. But he knows how to invest the story with heart.

If only the characters weren't so insistent on talking so much about how much heart they have. The audience catches on without having to have it spelled out so clearly.

But the joy of the film overshadows its first-time errors. In this election year, candidates are already asking whether you are better off now than you were four or eight years ago. At movie's end, if you ask yourself whether you are happier than you were an hour and a half ago, the answer is certain to be yes.