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

     The Ides of March is directed by George Clooney. The screenplay, adapted from the play “Farragut North” is also co-written by him. The movie as whole, however, belongs to Ryan Gosling. Perhaps that’s why it begins with him walking onto an empty stage under a spotlight and ends the same way. It’s a testament to his acting that without a single word he shows off his youthful exuberance in the first scene and the weight of his education along the American political campaign trail by the last frame.

     This is not your typical political thriller. Hollywood usually finds it necessary to portray politics on a grand scale – epic, expansive and worthy of a world stage. The Ides of March is set in Ohio; one battle in the war of the Democratic primary elections. A key battle no doubt – the winner will have the momentum to continue on towards clinching the Democratic nomination for President of the United States.  It is in this highly charged landscape that Gosling’s character, Stephen Meyers, makes himself at home. He is highly sought after (“the best media mind in the country”) and is playing for Governor Morris’s (George Clooney) team. Clooney is magnetic when he is in front of a crowd. You will feel like voting for him each time he eloquently spouts an answer to a probing question.  

     Visually, the crisp camerawork portrays the air of perfection put on by political candidates. This movie isn’t about visual flourishes though. It focuses on the characters and their interactions. The characters are etched so well, by the script and by the performances, that even their unexpected actions seem completely natural in hindsight. Philip Seymour Hoffman in particular, does an excellent job as Philip Zara, Governor Morris’ experienced campaign manager. One of the few people in this movie who isn’t ridiculously attractive, he brings a powerful presence with him that sometimes outshines both Clooney and Gosling when they are in a scene together. He switches effortlessly between an eloquent and calculated response to a reporter’s question and his remark afterwards, “I’m gonna go take a shit.”

     The message delivered by Clooney is that the political process is ugly. By the end, you’re not sure who you’re rooting for or even if there is a protagonist left to cheer for. Everyone shows their ugly side – even the supposed “good guys.” Stephen Meyers has a nasty streak which will let him “do anything to win if he believes in the cause” and it manifests itself when he’s dealing with an intern’s mistake. The Ides of March doesn’t believe there’s a politician out there with a clean past. Everyone has some indiscretion in their past which can and usually will be used– as leverage against them or as a means to destroy them.  The movie takes a depressing view of the political process that doesn’t necessarily think it’s broken but definitely corrupt.

    The opposing candidate’s campaign manager, Tom Duffy (Paul Giamatti), is even more world weary than Paul Zara. There is even a scene where he tells Meyers to leave the business of politics “while he still can.” It sounds like a cliché line about not being able to leave once you’re “in the club.” But delivered by Giamatti, every one of his words makes you feel years of disappointment and moral hazard behind it.  

     Clooney is always in best form when he’s at the helm of a serious movie. It seems like his absolute belief in the message he’s sending helps bring a wonderful product to the screen. Recently he made comments disparaging Democrats who criticize President Obama which establish his already well-known Democratic orientation. His thoughts on loyalty and Machiavellian tendencies show up more than once over the course of The Ides of March. Here’s a movie that presents a narrative with a resolution but leaves plenty of room to wrestle with the issues it raises. An intelligent and engaging movie, The Ides of March is sure to be a frontrunner candidate during the Oscar primaries. 

Trailer