Movies: Moneyball

Score: ****1/2 out of *****

Long Story Short: Moneyball is one of the best sports movies I've seen in a long time, and it follows in the same vein of storytelling as last year's The Social Network. Like that film, it features Sorkin's excellent dialogue, but it also has a much more effective emotional core than that Best Picture nominee, plus more humor. With Pitt as the charismatic and (surprisingly) sympathetic main character, and Hill and Hoffman in effective supporting roles, Moneyball hits a grand slam.

After a short hiatus following the end of the summer movie season and the beginning of the football season, I've at last come back to the movie theater. I generally steer clear of sports movies, despite the fact that I love both movies and sports. When they're put together, though, the results are usually not very good, in my opinion. However, Moneyball (directed by Bennett Miller, who also did Capote) seemed to have a good combination of fun, sense of humor, and creativity, along with positive critical reviews. So, I gave it a try as my first movie of the fall.

The story begins with a brief recap of the Oakland A's 2001 postseason run, which ended in a series loss to the Yankees. Following this loss, their three biggest stars left the team for more money (including with those conquering Yankees), leaving Oakland's general manager Billy Beane (Pitt) a serious challenge to rebuild the team for next season. He consults his team of scouts, then goes visiting other managers around the league looking to deal. While visiting the Cleveland Indians, Beane notices a young assistant, Peter Brand (Hill). Brand, an economist from Yale, uses a new strictly statistical formula for evaluating players. Desperate for any edge due to his lack of salary capacity, Pitt steals Brand away from the Indians.

Beane quickly becomes caught up in the new evaluation method, and overrides his incredulous scouts to sign various players who have baggage (age, behavior, etc.) but the necessary stats. His team's coach Howe (Hoffman), however, upset over not getting a contract extension, is skeptical about the new style Beane wants to implement. The team does start off slowly, despite the development of a few new stars, as Howe neglects Beane's favored acquisitions. Beane forces Howe to change, though, by laying his own job on the line in getting rid of the team's few stars. His chips all in, Beane's fate appears to be either glory - or unemployment.

Moneyball sports some nice performances from its cast, although probably nothing that will get nominated come awards season. Pitt was a good choice as the star, general manager Beane, with his charisma and confident personality. I think he perhaps plays the role with a bit too much of his "cool-dude" style, but he still gives a genuine sense of conflict and vulnerability at the right times, given his character's past (which I didn't want to spoil in the plot summary). Plus, he's become quite adept in the humorous moments as well. Jonah Hill is an even more appropriate choice as analyst Brand, a rolly-polly, shy, yet bright and determined young man. Brand doesn't get much development, but serves as a good partner to Pitt's Beane and comic counterpoint to the other baseball people (scouts, Howe, etc.). Philip Seymour Hoffman as manager Howe is yet another excellent choice as the grumbling, tobacco-chewing, traditional club leader. His part is pretty small, but he makes the most of his screen time. A final notable role is one of the new players, Hatteberg, played by Chris Pratt. I was surprised to find he is also in a TV show I've just started watching, Parks & Recreation, as he plays a much more serious, vulnerable character here, and does it quite effectively.

The script, co-written by West Wing and The Social Network wizard Aaron Sorkin, is one of the film's highlights. The dialogue is excellent and mercifully devoid of the many painful sports cliches that almost inevitably infiltrate these films. At least, I don't remember hearing any of them. The two main facets of the film, being Beane's character and the A's season, are very well developed and intertwined throughout without interfering with each other. The film is also, as the trailers and commercials suggested, a pretty humorous one. Certainly, it is supposed to be a based-on-a-true-story drama, but there are plenty of laughs and chuckles, mostly created by the clever dialogue. The actual baseball that is shown is kept pretty minimal, and so when it appears it's usually interesting. The film also uses a neat technique of putting the players in spotlights within a dark set to accentuate each individual's role (and pressure) on the team. Finally, I don't really remember the soundtrack for the most part, but Beane's daughter sings a song (and plays guitar) at one point that is quite good, and fits the story's emotional arc well.

***

I suppose it would take another viewing or two for me to really be confident that Moneyball is worthy of a 4.5/5 rating (or "excellent"), but I think it is. It's certainly one of the best sports movies I've ever seen. In part that's because it isn't really a "sports" movie in the traditional sense, in the way that The Social Network (another Sorkin script) wasn't really about social networking software. Baseball provides the film's specific flavor, but the main ingredients are A) a young, upper-level manager struggling to reconcile his passion for his vocation with his other duties, and B) a small "company" with little money or clout and a band of misfits trying to compete with the big boys. It intrigues both the mind and the heart, and when a movie can do that it is set for great things. And in a nice sense of humor and some other perks, and you've got a hit. Highly recommended, either in the theater or on DVD.