Film Review #9: Moneyball

     I've been excited to review this movie, I cannot tell a lie. Those who know me, know that I love baseball. So I've obviously read Michael Lewis' book to which this film is based. Don't fret however, I'm not one of those people that can't seperate the book from the movie, I won't sit here and complain that the film doesn't even mention the draft which is what most of the book focuses on or that the Ray Durham and Cliff Floyd deals weren't mentioned even in the slightest. No that's not my thing the book is a book and the film is a film related only by the title they both hold.

     Moneyball, tells the true story of the 2002 Oakland Athletics team, and their controversial GM (at the time anyway) Billy Beane (played by Brad Pitt). After a 2001 season that saw the A's lose in the postseason to the New York Yankees, 3 of their best players leave for free agency in leadoff man and stolen base threat Johnny Damon, Power bat with a .477 OBP Jason Giambi and closer Jason Isringhausen. So Beane has to find a way to replace them, working within a constricted budget, the A's spent 41 million that season, 7 of which went to Jermaine Dye.

     Moneyball was directed by Capote director Bennett Miller and stars the previously mentioned Brad Pitt as well as Phillip Seymour Hoffman as A's manager Art Howe and Jonah Hill as Peter Brand, a fictionalized composite of Beane's assistants, mostly based upon Paul DePodesta, Beane's assistant GM. In the film Brand is the one that brings the Moneyball strategy to Beane's attention after the youngster impresses the A's GM when he goes into a meeting with Mark Shapiro, GM of the Cleveland Indians, and Brand's then employer, and single handedly talks Shapiro out of a trade. Shortly thereafter Brand is hired by the A's and moneyball takes over.

     Quick side note about moneyball. It's a baseball strategy that values wins and runs above the players themselves, it was always about the player's statistics and not what they brought to the team. This allowed the A's to field a competitive team despite a low payroll because everyone undervalued these players thus allowing the A's to grab them at a low price.

     So after Beane and Brand carry on with the moneyball strategy they decide they can not replace a player like Giambi so they take the collective on-base-percentage of their 3 departing free agents and replace them with 3 new players, in this case Scott Hatteberg, the catcher turned 1st baseman; David Justice, aging slugger whose best days are behind him; and Randy Verlade, an underacheiving 3rd baseman.

     After a rough start to the season by the A's, Beane is definitely feeling the pressure. All the old school baseball scouts on the A's staff shun Beane and his ideals, the owner is peeved at his inability to put a winning team on the field and the manager, angry about his own contract situation, doesn't field the team Beane wants (including not having Scottie H. at first). Prompting Beane to clean house and hope that his team can turn it around, somehow, someway.

     At this point in his career you know what you're going to get with Brad Pitt, he's charasmatic and definitely the best choice of all the big name celebs to play the role of the unorthodox and unpredictable role of Billy Beane. I didn't expect much from Jonah Hill given what I've seen of his forays into the serious roles. He was okay, but unspectacular and the whole movie is kind of centralized on him, so it's hard to overlook, but you still manage to do so thanks to Aaron Sorkin's brilliant scripting.

     The baseball scenes looked realistic, which is generally hard to pull off in sports movies, let alone baseball, the most fundamentally sound sport in the athletic stratosphere (*Bias). Mind you that's thank to the casting of ex-MLB players in the less prominant roles. Thus the baseball looks real without having the movie dragged down by terrible acting. The only real problem I had with this movie was the character of Art Howe, being Hoffman's character I expected him to be the scene stealer but really he just stood there most of the time. I've grown to expect better from an actor of his caliber but it's as if his Capote cohort begged him to be in the movie because the other guy the got dropped out at the last minute.

     So apart from some minor flaws this movie turns out to be a good time, it's got enough baseball in it to attract those who are fans of the game but the movie doesn't overly focus on statistics that the casual fan or people new to the sport will get lost in. Bonus points given out to any of you that can succesfully explain WAR, UZR and DIPS. Never in the last 20 years has there been a baseball movie with so much emotion and depth that Moneyball brings to the sport. It's clear the days of Major League, Bull Durham and Eight Men Out are long gone but one can only hope the success of Moneyball brings back the trend and allows more baseball movies to be greenlit by studios. The success only hinge's on a couple Oscar noms for a well deserved crew behind the camera headlined by the adapted screenplay Sorkin has wowed us with, and the sharp wit Brad Pitt lends to Billy Beane's character.