"Moneyball" (2011)
"How can you not be romantic about baseball?" And how can you not love "Moneyball?"... the smart new film from director Bennet Miller which contains that line of truth-drenched dialog? We predict it will one day take it's place in the pantheon of great baseball movies, alongside "Bull Durham," "Field of Dreams," and "The Natural." Based on a book by Michael Lewis, a true story (we are told), the movie tells the saga of Billy Beane (Brad Pitt), Oakland A's general manager, who was perceptive enough to realize that the only way small baseball franchises could compete with the "big money teams," Yankees, Red Sox, et al., was to devise a system in which affordable players, with some problems, could be acquired cheaply and utilized for their strengths in a unique way to assemble a winning team. It's all about getting on base, you see, and working within your limitations. Billy finds in Ivy League graduate Peter Brand (Jonah Hill) a man with a computer and a graph devised to take some of the guesswork out of finding those hidden, budget-priced, overlooked baseball phenoms. Snatching up the decidedly un-athletic numbers whiz from another team, he takes him back to Oakland, where the two proceed to revolutionize the business end of the sport, confident that the dividends will show up on the scoreboard. Their scenes together are superbly played, and with a great deal of humor, as their contrasting personalities provide perfect foils to the strengths and weaknesses of each.
But how can a film about the business end of a sport make good cinema, you ask? By filling the screen with iconic sports images, a field of major league actors, and dialog so real and lively that is seems not scripted but spontaneous. (The screenwriters are Steven Zaillian, and Aaron Sorkin.) A meeting of team scouts, for example, plays out so authentically, we were sure that we were watching not actors, but the real Oakland scouting staff. Besides the afore-mentioned players, Pitt and Hill, Philip Seymour Hoffman is on hand, looking authentic in uniform and crew-cut, portraying the field manager of the struggling team. His obstinate refusal at first to see what Beane is trying to accomplish provides some real drama, but this film is not about sports drama, or the humor which is plentiful, but about the human spirit, inventiveness, and the secret goal of all sports enthusiasts which is to beat the odds. In that degree, it becomes a universal fable with a broad appeal.
Billy Beane's back story, told in flashback, provides a point-counterpoint to the main action. Drafted fresh out of high school because of his great promise as a player, Billy's career stalled, and we witness the tragedy and frustration that is the dark shadow of the American dream. Billy made a decision based solely on money once, and he has promised himself that it would never happen again. Billy's scene with his ex-wife (the dependable Robin Wright) and her second husband is a classic in how to supply information through what is observed rather than stated, and a series of scenes with his young daughter, Casey (winning newcomer Kerris Dorsey), are the heart of the movie. She is his guiding angel and the role is played with innocence and charm. We clearly see Billy's basic decency expressed in his role as a father, and there too we learn how he has remained an idealist in what might have been a cynical business.
Let us close by asking: Isn't it about time we recognized that Brad Pitt has become a great screen actor? Here he achieves an authenticity and nuance that seem so natural, we're ready to compare him with the historic screen giants who always seemed to inhabit their characters rather than portray them... men like Gary Cooper, Gregory Peck, Burt Lancaster. With recent performances in films like The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Inglourious Basterds, The Tree of Life, and now Moneyball, it's obvious Brad is "batting a thousand," and we're looking forward to watching him mature into any number of future roles.
See "Moneyball." This gem may be crowded out when the Oscar bait arrives in early winter, but it deserves to be remembered. We know we won't forget it. How can you not be romantic about a baseball movie this good?
