Moneyball

From the Academy Award nominated director of Capote, and written by the Academy Award winning writers of The Social Network and Schindler’s List, Moneyball stars Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill as the General Manager Billy Beane and Assistant General Manager Peter Brand of the Oakland Athletics. Beane was a top prospect and thought to be a baseball prodigy right out of high school. Things do not work out for Beane, and he becomes the GM of the Athletics. Brand is a Yale graduate with a degree in Economics. Together, they change the way baseball evaluates prospective players.

Moneyball begins with the Athletics losing to the Yankees in the 2001 playoffs. During the off season, Oakland guts the team of its three stars, Giambi (to the Yankees), Damon (to the Red Sox) and Isringhausen (to the Cardinals). This leaves the scouts and Beane in quite a bind. They are not a rich team. They are actually one of the poorest. Replacing three key players on a tight budget is an impossible task. So, Beane and his newly hired assistant approach it from a different angle. They decided to go by statistics alone. The old ways of swing and form, face and marital status, are thrown out the window.

The scouting staff for Beane makes their feelings known when Beane brings in Brand. The Athletics manager Art Howe (Phillip Seymour Hoffman) also fights Beane every step of the way. Howe refuses to play the players the way Beane wants him to, in the positions they are meant to be playing in. The entirety of MLB has the Athletics under a microscope and scrutinizes everything they are doing. At the beginning of the season, Oakland fails just as everyone expects. Once Beane’s hand is forced, he, in turn, forces Howe’s and things begin to turn around to make history.

Moneyball accomplishes something as amazing as it is odd. It is a movie about baseball with very little actual baseball in it. Most of the baseball footage is archive footage of the actual games and highlights. There is really only a few actual baseball scenes. Most of the interactions with the players happen in the team locker room. This also allows the filmmakers to cast less people. The film focuses on four players, outfielder Jeremy Giambi (Nick Porrazzo), relief pitcher Chad Bradford (Casey Bond), outfielder David Justice (Stephen Bishop) and catcher turned first baseman Scott Hatteberg (Chris Pratt). Of those actors, only the last two have any real acting credits. The first two are making their acting debut.

Moneyball has a running time of just over two hours, and at times it feels like it. It has a good pace for the most part, but I feel that a few scenes seemed repetitive. Brad Pitt has gotten some notice for his acting, but I just didn’t see it. He was good, but not great. The rest of the cast was decent, too. I just do not see any real big groundbreaking performances in this film. The directing was run of the mill biopic directing. I did like the interlacing of the real footage with the Hollywood movie. The one highlight for Moneyball belongs to Aaron Sorkin and Steven Zaillian. The script is solid with good dialog. The script is based on a book by Michael Lewis. Lewis also wrote the book The Blind Side. I did not find Moneyball as entertaining as I did interesting.  I enjoyed Moneyball, but I do not see it lighting the box office on fire.

RATING: 8/10