If only I was American

Rating: 7/10 (21 December 2011)

After I watched the film, I realised that Moneyball did not appeal to me, and I doubt it will appeal to other British audiences either. The screenwriters here have written a witty and very intelligent script for the film, adapting it from the general manager's book of the same name. And much of the dialogue requires a baseball head to understand. I do not have one and don't suspect many British people to have one either.
Those who are exceptions of this will be in for a delight. My personal response may have been that I found it to be difficult to be gripped by the subject matter but the American audience, the ones that are obviously the target demographic, will be in for this year's The Social Network. Two reasons why: number one – one of the screenwriters of Moneyball is Aaron Sorkin, who wrote The Social Network and has written something of similar quality here, and number two – director Bennett Miller has managed to take a simple subject matter and undeniably transform it into something far more interesting. This is a sports film that is not cliché-ridden. There's no sudden conflict that is a turning point in the narrative. In fact, there's a lack of equilibrium, just showing how chaotic and troubled Billy Beane is at this point in his career. And in fact, this isn't as much of a film about the sport as it is about the business of it all. Moneyball is a very talkative picture (which is why I don't recommend it to tweens or the frat house, because this is more artistic than entertaining) yet it manages to be somewhat intriguing when watching Billy Beane managed the Oakland A's just as they were hitting the lowest of lows.
The main reason for this was the Billy Beane played by Brad Pitt, who now looks to be a real contender for an Oscar nomination. This is a different role for Brad Pitt, he's taking authority – yes, he played a leader in Inglorious Basterds but this is better acting displayed by him. As well as delivering lines pitch perfectly (it's expected of any actor playing a 'formal' figure to act realistically when speaking), he brings a lot of humanity in the role, the key scenes being the ones where he is the only character in the frame and his facial expressions speak for him. The opening and closing shots, especially, of him are effective.
Jonah Hill, as Peter Brand, the Yale graduate with a major in Economics who assists Beane, turns-in terrifically as long as the expectations on him aren't for him to be the funnyman of the film. He is showing he has a broad range in this role, taking on a serious role as comic actors have done before him and done very well – Jim Carrey in Eternal Sunshine, Adam Sandler in Punch-Drunk Love, etc.
All in all, the direction is superb. The acting is excellent. The writing is sharp. The editing is splendid, especially in the baseball match scenes where the film cleverly combines real time with archive footage. Moneyball is undeniably an incredible piece of filmmaking and smarter than most Hollywood films this year. Yet it can only be enjoyed thoroughly if you know about baseball. And alas, I'm British and don't know much more about baseball than the team names. I'd perfectly understand it if a similar film was released where the subject matter was football, and I saw an American reviewer writing about the same problem he had when listening to actors speak about "the banter bus" and the team's best "holding midfielder", like we heard of "ugly girlfriend" or a "switch hitter".