Film Hits All the Bases

Rating: 9/10 (2 April 2012)

Well-written, well-acted, and well-directed. Sometimes there's not much more that needs to be said. Moneyball is an authentic film, and Zaillian, Sorkin, and Miller don't allow the false notes to creep into the film. With a runtime of just over 2 hours, it flies by.
Based on a true events, Pitt plays Billy Beane, the baseball general manager of the small- market Oakland A's who, back in 2002, realized that if his team was to have any chance of competing against big-market teams like the New York Yankees (with a payroll 3-4 times larger) he would have to change the way a baseball team is traditionally assembled.
Beane discovers a young, stat-obsessed scout-in-training (Jonah Hill) that believes the best way to gain wins with little money, is to carefully assemble a team with the type of players who do one thing well, and are overlooked or undervalued by other teams.
Throughout, Beane must deal with the resistance and skepticism of the team's owner, manager, players, press core, and fans who do not believe that non-stars or players past their prime, can outperform a team of more traditionally attractive players.
Beane also struggles to maintain a close relationship with his young daughter, whom he only has partial custody of, while his job appears to be in constant jeopardy.
Moneyball isn't a traditional "rah-rah, the little team that could" type of story (thankfully, as that is a storyline that's been played to death over the past 20 years in film). Rather, it is a film showing the struggle and failures of one man and his insistence in fighting an entrenched mindset of people who think a the the methods and rules of a 100+ year game cannot be changed.
The crazy ideas of today, often become the acknowledged wisdom of tomorrow.