It’s about the little guy beating the big guy. New school beating old school. The benefits of thinking outside the box. And it’s about Brad Pitt being charming as hell in one of his most charismatic roles to date.
Moneyball tells the story of how Billy Beane, General Manager of the Oakland A’s, one of the poorest teams in baseball, used sabermetrics, advanced statistics, to help turn the A’s into one of baseball’s most successful teams in the early 2000s.
If that sounds really dry, it’s not. While this movie is great for people who love baseball, like I do, it is the perfect baseball movie for someone who is not a fan of the game. By focusing on the human element in boardrooms, clubhouses and homes, instead of on the outcome and statistics of every single game, the movie manages to make A’s fans out of everyone.
What really carries this movie is Pitt’s performance as Billy Beane and Jonah Hill’s performance as his fictionalized assistant Peter Brand. The barbs and japes fired between the two throughout the movie are incredibly entertaining to watch. Hill, of Superbad fame, does a surprisingly good performance in a more dramatic role than he typically takes on. Pitt oozes confidence yet still manages to show a vulnerable side.
The screenplay is infused with co-writer Aaron Sorkin’s typical quick and witty banter. For those who saw last year’s The Social Network, also written by Sorkin, imagine that kind of a comedy in a baseball setting.
Unlike The Social Network, Moneyball is a comedy first and drama second.
Part of the fun going into Moneyball is in knowing how the story ends and still being enchanted by the movie. Not many movies can do that well.
While it is an enchanting movie, the story line loses its way a little. The first half of the season easily makes up three quarters of the film, so the last half of the season can’t help but feel a little rushed, which is unfortunate, because the end of the season is where the movie’s payoff is.
Nonetheless, this is an excellent film. Full of laughs and a winning story about a ragtag group of winners, Moneyball is definitely worth seeing.
Dan’s Terrible Movie of the Month
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Dan Krane can be contacted at [email protected]
