A good baseball movie, a subpar romance

Rating: 5/10 (10 October 1999)

Baseball always seems to be a little more mystical than the other American sports, a little more religious than football, hockey and basketball, to Americans that is. A great baseball player is referred to almost religiously. Pitchers are like Moses, and comparisons to them pitching a great game are often spoke of in the same way that religion speaks of parting the red sea. For Love of the Game is like that. There are so many "heroes are us" comments about making the sun shine one more time on some guys's storied career and blah blah blah, that it made me want to puke. But then again, baseball and even sports in general, makes me want to puke sometimes. Overpaid crybabies that go on the injured list because of a hangnail or a stiff eyelash are not what I would call role models. Having said that, For Love of the Game was an enjoyable film and I was actually rooting for Costner's character ( his name is Chapel, see what I mean about the God complex baseball has? ) to pitch his no hitter even though I knew at the beginning of the film that he probably would. But what I didn't enjoy was the romance between the two players. Kelly Preston is a hottie and I really enjoyed her in her teen roles like Secret Admirer and Mischief, and even in her sexy adult roles like Twins and Jerry Maguire. But I did not enjoy her in here as she was an annoying, indecisive, winy crybaby. Let me see here, what is not to like about a guy that seems to be totally head over heals in love with you, is ridiculously rich and gets along with your daughter? Nothing, and that was the problem with the film. I didn't buy the dilemma that she seemed to concoct for herself. The baseball part was hokey but fun but the romance was forced and silly. This is one film that I'm glad that I saw before it left the theater but I will never be inspired to watch again. I do give it a 7/10 and I also recommend that if you decide to see this it should be in the theater, it works better that way, but if you miss it, don't worry too much about it, there are better films out there.