Moneyball

     I've never been a baseball fan. When my Yankee or Red Sox fan friends go insane during the season, I usually roll my eyes and see if there's something else on to keep me occupied for the next three hours. Moneyball didn't make me love the game. It did however make me appreciate the people who work to bring their team to victory. Based on a book of the same name, this game is not really about the athletes (although in some ways it is). The movie focuses on the General Manager of the Oakland A's, Billy Beane (Brad Pitt) and I wanted his team to win. Not because they played with a lot of heart but because they were assembled by Billy with the type of heart seen more often in the coach of a sports movie.

     The movie starts with a disheartening elimination round loss in the series. Beane is determined to do better the next year because as he says, "I hate losing even more than I want to win." As he sits in the room with the team scouts, he realizes that the traditional method of analyzing players' personal lives, facial features and the beauty of their swing just isn't going to work - especially with his meager budget. By chance, Beane meets up with Peter Brandt (Jonah Hill) who has some theories about using statistics to win games that everyone has been dismissing. With a lack of any other ideas and experiences in his past that make him distrust the scouting system, Brandt is hired and the Oakland A's start playing Moneyball.

     Jonah Hill's Peter Brandt is not his usual fast talking, profanity-spouting supporting character . Instead he dons a pair of glasses and becomes a Yale-educated numbers man who has genuine chemistry with Pitt. In fact, he plays the straight man to Pitt's Beane who will destroy the nearest piece of furniture if the slightest bit perturbed. An understated and noteworthy performance, Hill is definitely ready for more dramatic roles.

     The movie clearly belongs to Pitt who has at least five scenes driving his truck where the camera is observing him from the passenger seat. He manages to convey a number of things during these scenes where the book was probably more likely to delve into the mathematical details of the game-winning strategy. In fact, the closing shot of the movie is in the same style and finally zooms closer to Pitt's face, which was in shadow during most of the previous scenes. Beane's daughter is another central part of the proceedings. She has a few scenes with her dad but they are powerful. They show Beane's vulnerable side, the one that hides the bluster he puts on when wading through the world he knows - baseball. It shows the side of him that made him stay in Oakland, perhaps against his better instincts. The other supporting characters don't get much screen time. I'm not sure why Philip Seymour Hoffman is in this movie - his role is not a complex one and although he essays it well, there's nothing separating it from how it would have been played by another actor.

     Moneyball is a triumphant movie in that it celebrates the fight of the underdog - a cause we can all get behind. In today's world where NBA players are going on strike for not making more millions and investment bankers are crying outrage at being denied bonuses that can be fun. It's fun to cheer for the scrappy Oakland A's and their unorthodox method of pushing back. But in the end it's the heartfelt portrayal of Billy Beane that scores the game-winning home run for this movie.  

Trailer