Moneyball (***)
Directed by: Bennett Miller
Starring: Brad Pitt, Jonah Hill, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Chris Pratt,
Casey Bond, Stephen Bishop, Robin Wright, Kerris Dorsey
Seen: November 25th 2011
*** Out of ****
In the year 2001, the Oakland Athletics (A’s) were gutted in their
post-season. They had great players and were eventually one win away from the
play-offs, but were eliminated and consequently lost all of their star players
to teams with deeper pockets. This put their General Manager, Billy Beane
(Pitt) in a spot of bother regarding preparation for 2002. Where some major
teams had player budgets of well over $120 million, the A’s had to make do with
less than $40 Million, the owners happy with the A’s being a second rate team.
That’s when Billy Beane, with the help of his Assistant GM Peter Brand
(Hill), devised an entirely new system for managing a baseball team. They endured
criticism and risked being ostracised from the game for their approach, and
when crucial elements continued to oppose their plans it very nearly got down
to that level, as the team manager Art Howe (Hoffman) refused to play the game
in Beane’s way. Where the game of baseball was previously all about the star
players with supposedly high confidence levels and obviously visible skills,
Beane and Brand studied the statistics to find players who excelled at small
and singular elements of the game, players who were down and out in their
preferred position position and believed to be done with the game, and players
who were, according to the prevailing views, not worth all that much anymore,
and they started building a team based purely on statistics, switching players
to new positions and inspiring in them new levels of confidence. Beane and
Brand changed the future of baseball in 2002 with their unique view of the
game, and when their team again came within one win of the play-offs, a belief
in what they did started emerging in the rest of the MLB; in particular because
of the 20 game winning streak they accomplished, the longest ever in the
league.
Even if you know nothing about baseball, which I don’t, as it is
nowhere on the South African sports radar; Moneyball will offer something to
enjoy. Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill are both brilliant as Beane and Brand, with an
honest relationship and some great comedic moments coming out of relatively
deadpan situations. Jonah Hill especially surprised me with his dramatic acting
skills, as previously he was more of a slapstick/outrageous comedy actor, where
here he played a straight forward, though still unwittingly funny character. My
only criticism of the movie is that it feels quite a bit too long, as at 2:15 a
drama with sports as the tapestry needs to be a bit more flashy, maybe Aaron
Sorkin (screenwriter for The Social Network) flashy. While the movie is about
baseball, you eventually realise that there is actually very little baseball in
the movie, with the team dynamic and management clashes off the field receiving
stronger focus.
Moneyball will entertain you and have you rooting for the A’s and
Beane and Brand, even if it is, at times, a little slow-paced.
Comments