Hardball Goes Down Swinging

Rating: 5/10 (3 July 2018)

Hardball is a well-intentioned, tender-hearted film that gets lost in clichés, stereotypes, and bad writing. Keanu Reeves plays Coner O'Neal, a heavy-drinking compulsive gambler who is clearly down on his luck. When he asks a stockbroker-friend to loan him some money, his friend instead offers him a job-coaching Little League ball players for $500 a week. The catch is that this particular Little League team is made up of residents from Cabrini-Green, Chicago's most notorious public housing project.
So, we end up with the white mentor meets black street kid cliché (Finding Forrester). The basic plot line of the film is the standard sports film cliché. For me, almost all sports films are variations of Rocky. For example, Hoosiers is "rural Rockies play basketball". The Mighty Ducks could be subtitled "little Rockies play hockey". Even Cool Runnings is "Jamaican Rockies go bob-sledding". The closest parallel is probably Bad News Bears, but Mighty Ducks is a close second.
As is the case in many of these films, the basic formula is loser coach coaches loser athletes and they all become winners in the end. A common subplot occurs when the down-and-out coach loses faith in himself, but is propped up by the love of a good woman ("Yo' Adrian"). As I have stated before formula can be okay, if you create richly drawn characters and interesting contexts with unusual plot twists that keep us in suspense. Alas, Hardball had none of this.
This is essentially a formula film with poorly developed characters, few innovations, and flat interpersonal relationships throughout the film. If you are interested in the film because you like sports films, see any of the other films listed above on video instead. Major League II even looks good by comparison. If your primary interest is in the lives of low-income minorities in the inner city check out the documentary Hoop Dreams, Menace II Society, Boyz in the Hood, or Clockers. If the interracial mentoring is what appeals, Finding Forrester is a much better choice. If you were interested in this film because you are a Keanu Reeves fan, see your therapist or wait for Matrix II.
To be fair, there was one moment at the end of the film that was poignant, well-acted, and moving. This is a clear case of too little too late though. The film ended by swinging for the fences, but in the final analysis Hardball went down swinging.