"Moneyball" is an inside baseball story about a professional baseball team's general manager who makes some unorthodox moves to get his team to No. 1. Not being much of a baseball fan, I didn't know the story of the 2002 Oakland Athletics amazing 20-game winning streak. And, of course, I had never heard of Billy Beane.
At face value, "Moneyball," based on a non-fiction book by a former bonds trader, seems like a long shot to make it to the big screen. Michael Lewis's book, "Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game," is focused on statistics and the maneuverings of baseball. It goes in depth about sabermetrics, the use of statistical analysis to project outcomes of player performance.
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Sounds like pretty boring stuff for a movie, right? But with an injection of some heart and soul plus the star power of Brad Pitt, "Moneyball" finds a way to deliver.
The story begins in 2001 when the Oakland A's lose three star players to richer teams. Beane is in a bind. He has to rebuild a winning team, but the team's owner won't cough up the cash. After a stop in Cleveland to see if he can negotiate some player trades, Beane ends up crossing paths with Peter Brand (Jonah Hill), an economics geek fresh out of Yale, who has applied his numbers crunching prowess to baseball using the theories of sabermetrics guru Bill James. (While Beane is a real life character, you won't find Peter Brand in any baseball books. He's fictional, brought to life for the film.)
The cash-strapped Beane decides to take on Brand and hires him as assistant GM for the Oakland A's, where he'll put the sabermetrics' theories to the test.
Co-screenwriter Aaron Sorkin, who made computer focused Facebook a big screen hit with "The Social Network," takes the same tact with "Moneyball," using the statistical elements to capture character emotion.
Pitt embodies that drive and emotion, and if you can look past his obvious egging for an Oscar win, you'll find his approach to the affable Billy Beane as comfortable as a tanned, leather baseball glove. Pitt also produced the film and stuck by it during some bumpy fits and starts, and his passion for the film comes through in his character.
Pitt brings an understanding of the complexity of Beane, especially when we learn of his past through flashback. The young ball player passed on a full scholarship to Stanford to sign with the New York Mets out of high school, but then failed miserably on the field.
Pitt shows depth, too, when the script (this wasn't part of the book) calls for some emotional moments, including a storyline about his family life, which includes his ex-wife (Robin Wright, who should have had more screen time) and young daughter, Casey (Kerris Dorsey).
The role of Brand seems tailor made for Hill, who uses his gift of comic timing, for some priceless scenes including one where he's forced to fire a professional baseball player. Philip Seymour Hoffman, who shines in any role he's given, plays field manager Art Howe with the perfect gruff resistance.
To capture the stark realism of the scrappy A's team, director Bennett Miller cast a mix of actors and real life baseball players in the roles. The filmmakers also cast several pro baseball scouts, including former player and manager Ken Medlock (who is a standout against Pitt in his role as director of scouting Grady Fuson), legendary scout Phil Pote, Los Angeles Dodgers scout Artie Harris and baseball coaches and managers George Vranau and Barry Moss.
"Moneyball" will no doubt join the ranks of underdog sports movies such as "The Natural," "Field of Dreams" and the recent "The Blind Side." Like the sports films it will no doubt be compared to, "Moneyball" has the same easy accessibility. Whether you're a sports fan or not, you'll root for Beane who doesn't just want to win games, he wants to win games that "mean something."
"Moneyball" has a lot going for it with more than a few reasons for it to be a home run. And a home run it is.
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