Touching

Rating: 8/10 (18 September 1999)

Although many of the Hollywood films have a very "American" feel to it, "For Love of the Game" practically defines the United States. This movie shows almost every aspect of the American culture and their obsession with sports but beneath this baseball exterior is a movie about how an individual deals with change.
The story revolves around Billy Chapal (Kevin Costner). Billy is the star pitcher for the Detroit Tigers and has spent his entire career with the team. We meet Billy late in his long but distinguished career and it seems that time has finally caught up with him. His body is starting to show signs of age and in the final game of the year against the New York Yankies, circumstances dictate that he must decide whether he wants to continue to play (possibly on another team) or retire. Throughout this final game, the movie flashes back to snippets of his life revolving around his career, friends and a woman named Jane (Kelly Preston). Jane is a woman that Billy meets 5 years prior to this time and these flash backs show the relationship between the two of them and the role that baseball plays in Billy's life.
This is possibly one of Kevin Costner's best performances. Although he has done many different roles, baseball seems to be one that he's most comfortable in. This is his third baseball movie and I have to say that I found this one to be his best. In many of Costner's movies, I have always found that he sometimes has a very unemotional or "stoney" performance but this is not the case with this movie. In many instances, I found his display of emotions very true and on occasions you get a lump in your throat. Kelly Preston is exceptional in this movie as Chapal's girlfriend and we definitely see chemistry between the two actors. This movie is not only about Chapal's life. There is enough development by the director to give insight into Preston's character and her life that you feel what she feels. The peripheral actors also give very good performances, especially John Reilly who plays the Tigers' catcher and Chapal's best friend.
The one drawback to this movie is that it does feel long. It's approximately 2.5 hours but it feels more like 3 hours. There were also instances that I think some scenes were cutout. The trailers and commercials show some scenes that weren't in the movie that I thought would have been more appropriate.
This is a very good movie, even if you're not a baseball fan, which being from Canada, I'm not but nonetheless I liked it. There is much more going on than baseball and the director uses some beautiful images as symbolism. I would definitely recommend this movie to anyone....9/10.