Intelligent docu-drama

Rating: Null/10 (18 February 2012)

Unlike "Field of dreams", the iconic baseball fantasy cum feel-good melodrama, "Moneyball" is a serious dramatized documentary on how an idea culminated in revolutionizing the entire business of managing Major League Baseball. The old school scouts who pride themselves on years of experience and intuition are pitched against the 25-year-old Yale computer wiz Peter Brand's (Jonah Hill) "sabermetrics" - mathematical models and absolutely nothing else. Mentoring Brand is Billy Beane (Brad Pitt) who has a story of his own – giving up a Stanford scholarship (baseball players are not as lucky as NFL players for whom college is part of the standard career path) to become a MLB player, only to fail at the field and went on to become a baseball GM. The time frame of this movie is the beginning of the millennium when he finds himself at a crossroad. As the manager of the pathetic Oakland A's, Beane is at the verge of losing his job right at a mid-life crisis. Brand's scientific method can be his salvation, or undoing. This is sort of a variation of the "You and me against the world" theme (thanks Helen Reddy). The story is told in a very engaging way but delightfully free of any genre cliché.
While the primary premise of managing a Major League team by mathematics is quite novel, this movie has many familiar themes. It is definitely an underdog story. As well, the ruthless world of the MLB "slave trade" (I coined) is clearly depicted – it's bad enough to be traded (for whatever reason) to a team a thousand miles away with hardly any advance notice, but be thankful you don't get fired outright on the spot, just like that. On the intimate scale, Beane is on reasonable friendly terms with his divorced wife (Robin Wright) and her remarried husband who have the custody of the his 12-year-old daughter (Kerris Dorsey). Father and daughter are very close and seem to be able to spend time together whenever feasible.
Casting is top-notch and performances are brilliant. Pitt continues, year after year, to demonstrate his amazing range. Staying right there with Pitt (and they have quite a few scenes together) is little-known Hill whose portrayal of the somewhat bulky, introvert, unimpressive wiz kid impresses in a way nobody can. Although billed as the female co-star, Wright appears in exactly one short scene where Beane goes to collect their daughter. A little more than cameo is Philip Seymour Hoffman as the team's manager who is always at a collision course with Beane. There is still not much screen time to speaks of but whenever you see Hoffman, his is always brilliant. Dorsey who plays the 12-year-old daughter is a darling in every single way.
The only bit of melodrama is a game against Kansas City which, if won, will give the A's an unprecedented 20-game streak. Beane who never stays in the stadium to watch his team play but drives around aimlessly relying on the cell phone or radio to follow what is happening, breaks routine by turning the car around upon hearing that his team is enjoying a formidable 11-0 lead in the fourth inning. But the tides start turning when he is back in the stadium as KC comes back with run after run to tie the score at 11-11. To make things easy for of the audience unfamiliar with the game of baseball, the movie makers follow a path that leaves much to be desired for people who understand the game. While for the NFL, the team on defence still has a small chance of scoring (i.e. offensive fumbles) a MLB team on defence simply does not score. When we see the A's batting at 11-11 in the last inning but are not told if that's the top or the bottom of the inning. If that's the bottom, they are loss-proof, even though a tie is not quite as sweet as a win. If that's the top, whatever they score does not guarantee a win. Either way, the dramatic effect of the homer shown is much reduced.
But as I said, this movie anything but melodramatic and the above scene is not the final climax, but something added presumably to please those who would like to see a bit of melodrama. There is another 25 minutes of thought-provoking movie after that scene.