Moneyball (2011) Review

Director: Bennett Miller
Writer: Aaron Sorkin and Steven Zaillian

Genre: Sports/Drama

3.5 Cookies

Glass of milk - Brad Pitt

Glass of milk - Jonah Hill

“How can you not be romantic about baseball?”

When I saw The Social Network last year, one of my first reactions (after, “Wow, that was like the best movie ever!”) was that I could not wait to see the next movie written by Aaron Sorkin. When I heard that Sorkin was teaming up with Steven Zaillian (Schindler’s List), to write a movie about baseball, I was excited. When I heard that this baseball movie, written by Aaron Sorkin and Steve Zaillian, starred Brad Pitt, Jonah Hill, and Phillip Seymour Hoffman, I was ecstatic. When I saw the final product, I was thrilled that it lived up to my self-imposed hype.

Moneyball, directed by Bennet Miller (Capote), is the story of the 2002 Oakland A’s, and how general manager Billy Beane attempted and succeeded to reinvent baseball so that cash strapped teams could compete with the rich teams, by using computer analysis and stats.

The movie opens with the A’s losing to the New York Yankees in the final game of the 2001 American League Division Series. A title card flashes on screen that reads: $114,457,768 vs. $39,722,689 (the salary of the Yankees vs. the salary of the A’s). Oakland’s three best players (Jason Giambi, Johnny Damon, and Jason Isringhausen) become free agents in the off-season and because of Oakland’s financial limitations, Billy has no way of resigning them. So, the challenge Billy faces is rebuilding a team with a limited amount of funds in a league with no salary cap. “Baseball is an unfair game,” Billy says at one point.

But the reason Moneyball is great is that it’s about so much more than baseball. It’s about adapting to a system in order to survive, disregarding old ideals in order to improve upon them, doing the unpopular thing because you know it’s the right thing.

Brad Pitt is in full on movie star mode here, his acting crackles like a fastball with just enough cut on it to make a batter swing and miss. There is not a chance in hell Pitt won’t get an Oscar nomination for this performance. Like Jesse Eisenberg did with Mark Zuckerberg in The Social Network, Pitt takes a real, living person, and turns him into a great cinematic character. The story of Billy’s past is told with flashbacks throughout the movie, and really helps add to the emotional aspect of the film.

In a rare attempt at a serious role, Jonah Hill knocks it out of the park as Peter Brand, a Yale educated computer genius who helps Billy assemble his team using numbers. Hill nails every scene, every line, being serious when he needs to be, and adding comic relief when called upon.

Moneyball is based on the 2003 book of the same name by Michael Lewis that completely changed the way baseball teams are put together, and led to the Boston Red Sox winning the 2004 World Series, using the strategies Billy implemented in Oakland. Now every team in baseball has Sabermetric analysts to dissect stats in order to build a successful team for the least amount of money.

Moneyball has no Field of Dreams, having a catch with your dead dad on a magical baseball field moment. This story is real, and harsh, more about the business of sports and the difficulties of being a player in a game based off numbers, then it is about baseball being a shining beacon of hope and memory in American culture. Moneyball is a love letter to the game, but it also feels like hate mail too. While Billy based his team completely on stats, human beings still have to play, and one of the movie’s best scenes comes when Billy is forced to cut a player from the roster – the realities of a brutal business, if you don’t produce, you get fired.

This movie is not perfect – director Bennet Miller is not David Fincher (The Social Network), and the film doesn’t completely have the sizzle that the movie might have had if Fincher was at the helm instead of Miller. Regardless, Miller does direct a few sequences masterfully including a great scene where Billy, making multiple phone calls, pulls off a trade right before the trading deadline. The scene feels like the classic scene in Jerry Maguire when Tom Cruise is on the phone trying to keep his clients after being fired, and only ends up with the Cuba Gooding Jr. character.

Also, while it comes just short, Moneyball lacks the emotional punch to the gut that it could have had.

I loved the pacing of this movie – it plays out like a baseball game, taking its time, not rushing to get anywhere too quickly. It’s also pretty cool to hear the names of so many current baseball people being used in a Hollywood film.

You’ll be hearing about this movie a lot for the next few months and it’s going to garner much attention during Oscar season. I’d be surprised if it doesn’t get multiple nominations. Moneyball is one of the best movies of 2011 so far, and it also makes me very excited for October – the playoffs are almost here!