“It’s easy to be romantic about baseball.” As history goes to show, filmmakers and storytellers never tire of telling tales of the great American pastime. Moneyball takes a new approach to the sport of baseball, focusing on a time not too long ago when one man changed the game forever.
Aaron Sorkin and Steven Zaillian’s big screen adaptation of Michael Lewis’ book focuses on the men behind the team, and is more about overcoming obstacles and following your heart than about winning the game. The screenplay went through numerous updates with contributions from two of Hollywood’s strongest writers, and what resulted is a film that captures the character, heart, and brains of baseball.
Brad Pitt plays Billy Beane, General Manager of the struggling Oakland Athletics. As the A’s 2001 season comes to a close, they are faced with losing their star players to teams with bigger budgets. Beane can no longer see a championship in his future and decides to make a change or throw in the towel. While at a meeting in Cleveland, Beane meets Peter Brand (Jonah Hill), assistant to the General Manager of the Indians. A 25-year-old Yale graduate with a degree in economics, Brand’s forté is player analysis. Brand’s passion and skill is immediately apparent to Beane, who takes him to Oakland as the A’s new assistant General Manager. The unlikely duo work together to rebuild their failing baseball team using statistics to sift out strong, yet overlooked players. While the team’s struggle is important, the writers chose to delve deeper into the dugout, going behind the scenes of what it took to change the face of baseball.
What Moneyball comes down to is one man’s journey to make a change he believes in. Beane has struggled with failure his entire life. Drafted to the Mets straight out of high school, he turned down a scholarship at Stanford to play for the major leagues. Scouts saw magic in him, and were convinced he’d be a star. As history showed, however, “it just didn’t pan out.” While he wasn’t mean to be a player, Beane was meant for the world of baseball, and after thirty years in the game, it’s do or die. He builds a team of rejects, as he calls it, “a land of misfit toys.” His misfits, however, aren’t emphasized enough, and are so impersonal, it’s hard to make much of a connection with the A’s as a whole.
While we’re always rooting for Billy Beane, having a unified team to cheer on enables the non-sports fan to connect with a sports movie. It’s hard to support a team we barely know. We’re never given the opportunity to get to know the players, who are traded like baseball cards and rarely speak. With the exception of Scott Hatteberg (played by Parks and Recreation’s Chris Pratt), we’re so detached from the A’s that it’s not particularly important whether or not they win. What is important is that Billy Beane keeps his job. It’s also important, however to give any type of viewer the opportunity to connect with the characters on screen. Moneyball delves deep into the analytical world of baseball, perhaps too deep for those with no sports inclination. As someone unfamiliar with the intricacies and history of the sport, I was immediately lost. I tried to grasp facts and statistics in the hopes that a poignant payoff would result, but I was never quite able to make the emotional connection with Moneyball that I’d hoped to.
The writers clearly drew Beane’s family to give him some humanity, to give audiences something to connect with other than baseball, a further reason to root for their hero. His ex-wife Sharon (Robin Wright) and twelve-year-old-daughter Casey are introduced, but although Casey appears sporadically, she isn’t present enough for the viewer to worry about what will happen to her if her father’s vision fails. Beane’s character is strong enough on his own, which is really the point of it all. The existence of his family isn’t enough to make him a family man or allow audiences to empathize with him. The relationship he develops with Peter Brand is much more poignant than any past relationship he has.
Pitt and Hill are a pleasant duo, playing nicely off one another. Hill’s comic prowess gives Pitt the opportunity to add a playful side to a stoic character. Jonah Hill (in his final pre-diet roll as chubby sidekick) delivers just the right amount of lighthearted humor to the film. Unlike most parts he plays, Hill’s character Peter Brand (based on baseball executive Paul DePodesta) is intelligent and reserved, and it’s refreshing to see Hill play a more subtle role. His character enables those uninformed about baseball to connect with a non-athlete who clearly stands out, a misfit in his own right.
Philip Seymour Hoffman makes an appearance as Art Howe, the bitter manager of the A’s. As usual, Hoffman embodies his character down to the bald head and pudgy belly, portraying a man who has given up on his career and lost nearly all motivation. His character, and Hoffman’s talent, feels under utilized, however, and while he’s meant to be the catalyst for Beane’s move to be more involved in coaching, the mounting tension between Howe and Beane isn’t tangible enough.
Brad Pitt has aged gracefully, embracing his age and acknowledging that his looks will never fade. His graying sideburns and stubble making him sexier than ever, middle age has enabled him to take on more mature and thought-provoking roles. It’s refreshing to see an actor with such a stigma for playing the pretty boy really come into his own. He portrays a man’s struggle to maintain his dignity with elegance and charisma.
In the end, I want to feel empowered to take on the world, want to root for the underdog, want to see my team win. Yes, it’s a true story, but the payoff just isn’t great enough. Strong acting, writing and directing will undoubtedly carry the film to awards season, but there is still something missing: that intangible heart that makes you cry whether your team loses or wins, and leaves even the biggest sports skeptic soaring out of the theater.
"Moneyball" opens September 23, 2011 and is rated PG13. Drama, Sports. Directed by Bennett Miller. Written by Steven Zaillian, Aaron Sorkin. Starring Brad Pitt, Jonah Hill, Philip Seymour Hoffman.
