A Masterpiece!

Rating: 10/10 (18 December 2002)

I loved this film! Probably a lot of people disagree with me, but I feel that this is the best film of all time. Even though, after seeing "Hardball" many times it may have lost some touch, I have not forgotten the effect it had on me the first time I saw it.
In "Hardball" Keanu Reeves plays a gambler who is offered to get paid under the table by a friend, if he coaches a Little League baseball team for children in the Cabrini Green Housing Projects. Really, I feel that this film is no more about gambling than it is about baseball, even though there's a lot of baseball. I feel that this film is really about one man's conversion brought on by the children he coaches. He touches their lives and they touch his. Keanu Reeves is also touched with a light, chaste romance with Diane Lane as a school teacher of some of the team's boys.
Some people may have felt that this film is predictable or formulaic, but I felt everything flowed so beautifully that it seemed real and felt great. As a matter of fact, I feel that "Hardball" doesn't fall prey to certain cliches.
The acting is great, the music is electrifying, the cinematography very good, humor is there, and "Hardball" is ultimately uplifting and moving. It was so good, that it made me want to be a better person. No doubt I own the DVD and VHS. Not many movies I can say that for.