MONEYBALL – Reviewed by J.D.

When I first caught word of the upcoming cinematic adaptation of Michael Lewis‘s Moneyball book, a well-regarded examination of the recent phenomenon of executives of small market baseball teams incorporating statistical analysis and market inefficiencies to compete against the free-spending behemoths, I muttered something along the lines of “How is that gonna work?” Now, keep in mind that I mutter to myself quite a lot, so it wasn’t out of the ordinary. But the question remained; how does such a concept, interesting as it is to some, translate on to the big screen? Well, after fits and bursts in development, this year we were finally allowed to see for ourselves. Much to my surprise, and admittedly with some very specific reservations, Moneyball is a very entertaining look at the business of baseball that easily can appeal to viewers who would rather eat a bowl of moths than watch a game.

Is there a more under appreciated actor these days than Brad Pitt? An actor who, when he first debuted, was known more for his looks than his abilities, Pitt over the years has shown himself to be a versatile, and extremely savvy, presence on the screen who rarely makes a misstep in either choosing or performing a role. He has deftly become ‘his own boss’, as a successful producer, and seems to be entirely comfortable with his level of fame. Here, in the role of Oakland A’s General Manager Billy Beane, the focus of Moneyball the book and the movie, he charmingly eases his way through what is, in all honesty, a paper-thin plot and, by the dint of his affable presence (he has become what people used to imagine what Robert Redford was), easily guides us through 2 hours plus of sports wonk talk. It’s almost entirely a one-man show, as his co-star, the Tourette’s afflicted shape-shifter Jonah Hill, registers as almost a non-presence in the role of Peter Brand, a composite sketch of Beane’s assorted Ivy League number crunchers who aided him in the early days of his job. The part is devoid of much to do beyond nod at Pitt, which seems to play best to Hill’s limited abilities.

When the film begins in 2002, we learn, with Beane, that due to financial limitations, and the free-spending ways of the New York Yankees, that Oakland is about to lose its MVP slugger (and current Rockie) Jason Giambi, along with other players. Oakland, historically, has had, and lost, some of the greatest players of the last 40 years, often to larger markets it cannot compete with. So, knowing he needs to fill some sizable holes, Beane decides that, if the team cannot match the huge contracts afforded by other teams, then it must discover a different path to player development. This includes scouring the waiver wire and free agent pool for players with specific skills that may be overlooked, either for defensive value, or the low-average ‘Three True Outcome’ hitter (walks, homers, strikeouts) with a high on-base percentage. Abandoning the notion of overpaying for ‘names’, Beane, to the chagrin of many of his scouts, coaches and manager (a curmudgeonly Philip Seymour Hoffman as Art Howe) used to ‘the old ways’, attempts a crusade which had already been started, outside the coaching box, by influential baseball analyst Bill James via his ‘Abstract’ books in the 1980′s (which I bought every year, enjoyed immensely, and only vaguely understood). It was to throw away the old statistical signifiers of homeruns and RBI, and look deeper at where a player’s real value lies, even if it’s not first apparent on the playing field.

The film takes us from spring training of that season, through the ups and downs of the early months where Beane clashes with players and coaches, and further along when the A’s began to lake the AL by storm, winning a record 20 games in a row and the division title. It also offers a light dusting of Beane’s personal life, interactions with his divorced wife (Robin Wright, in a part so small she was likely paid in game tokens) and beloved daughter, a girl presented as being so precocious she scarcely registers as human. Director Bennett Miller and the two screenwriters, Steven Zaillian and Aaron Sorkin, make the material all as breezy as possible, while never altering the actual outcome of the season for dramatic purposes, or giving his daughter a fatal bout of whooping cough for Pitt to emote over. What theatrics arrive is true to anyone who’s ever played on a team, or read a box score.

My reservations with the film are in regards solely to what was necessarily left out of the story. The A’s are presented, in spring training, as a kind of real-life Bad News Bears, a group of stumblebums and halfwits who are doomed to fail, with the owners eventually being forced to sell the team to Chico’s Bail Bonds. In truth, Oakland had one of the best young pitching staffs in the game, with a future Cy Young winner in the rotation, and some terrific young hitters in Miguel Tejada (a future MVP), Eric Chavez and Jermaine Dye. A few of these players’ names are mentioned, briefly, but the film makes it seem as though it was journeymen like Scott Hatteberg or David Justice (a once-great hitter himself) who willed the team to win. That ain’t exactly true, but there is a narrative that must be delivered.

But that’s neither here nor there. While Beane was almost assuredly not the first to use a different set of statistical valuations (old-timers like Casey Stengel and Earl Weaver were long known to keep a different set of books as regards to players), in the modern era, with a little help from Michael Lewis, he has become the John Galt of baseball’s ‘Atlas Shrugged’, albeit in reverse. Ayn Rand was, almost assuredly, a Yankees fan. – [DVD] [Blu-Ray]

Biography/Drama/Sport

Rated PG-13

DVD Release Date: 1/10/12