Heavy Hitters

Rating: Null/10 (20 August 2011)

This is a comparative rarity, a film that can satisfy the popcorn set at the Multiplexes yet offer more substantial food for thought to the more discerning. There's a fine period - late nineteen thirties - 'feel', a complementary period 'sound' via the background music (Levinson is clearly a Duke Ellington buff as both Sophisticated Lady and In A Sentimental Mood can be heard in the background if you know where to listen), excellent photography and fine ensemble acting. The symbolic references don't need to register and/or get in the way of an entertaining story that ticks so many boxes in both lower and upper case - second chance if you're an average Joe, REDEMPTION, if you're a college graduate; I could go on but you get the picture. Robert Redford is just about ideal casting as Roy Hobbs, with his natural handsomeness played down - unlike, say, The Way We Were, where it was exploited much more - and manages to pull off the idea of a slightly tarnished idealist to a fare-thee-well. Glenn Close discards her natural femme fatale comfort zone and is able to do 'pure' and 'sincerity' to perfection. And so it goes; good and evil, black and white, a movie for all seasons.