Maybe it is just me, but I feel that when a story about pool tries to be a soap opera, it usually fails miserably. When the plot is as silly and contrived as this one, it's even worse. I don't think players or non-players are captivated by rags-to-riches stories of would-be pool champions.
I always come back to The Hustler and The Color of Money as the two winning prototypes for a pool story. The Hustler has pool as its backdrop, but it is not a pool movie at all. It is solid drama from the first moment and it excels in being just that, and it ultimately has little to say about pool. Conversely, The Color of Money is very much a pool movie, examining almost every aspect of the pool scene, including hustling, the green room, the world of tournaments and, of course, the world of dumping. It succeeds greatly as a pool movie, saying a lot about pool, but does not really succeed as drama.
Just one man's opinion.