Good biographical film, but I didn't get all the baseball refs

Rating: 6/10 (22 July 2012)

Enjoyed this, although didn't understand all the baseball references. Basically a true story of a baseball GM who tried a new computer-generated statistic analysis to put a potentially winning team together on a low budget compared to teams such as the Yankees or the Red Sox. Set in the Oakland Athletics, Brad Pitt plays Billy Beane who was an ex player turned scout who finds Jonah Hill the Stanford Economics genius who has developed the equations and such to set up the system. Pitt, Hill and Seymour Hoffman were great, understated characterizations, Pitt bringing his eat & act modus operandi to the character, which always makes me laugh. It wasn't as gripping as some sports films, as it's about the people rather than the game, but exciting enough to follow the team, with some illustrated back story of Bean's career and also about his life out of the dugout (not that he is ever IN the dugout) with a cameo from Robin Wright as the ex-wife. His daughter was cutie with a good singing voice. Well directed film written in part by Aaron Sorkin - which didn't surprise given the tight economic script. Good biographical film.