Arts & Life

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Written by: Lake County News Reports

Published: 24 September 2011

MONEYBALL (Rated PG-13)

You don’t have to love baseball to enjoy the captivating story, the great dialogue and the well-developed characters in “Moneyball,” though it likely helps.

Baseball purists may object to certain liberties taken with factual accounts of the Oakland Athletics 2002 season. But that’s of no concern here.

The film is based on Michael Lewis’ nonfiction book “Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game,” which extolled cash-poor Oakland’s ability to compete with rich, big-market teams.

In certain respects, “Moneyball” is a Cinderella story set on a nicely trimmed field of dreams, except that baseball fans know that Oakland hasn’t won a World Series since the showdown with the Giants during the 1989 earthquake.

The story of hope is fueled by Oakland’s General Manager Billy Beane (Brad Pitt), a free thinker not constrained by the conventional wisdom of baseball.

After the witnessing the failure of his team to beat the Yankees in a 2001 playoff series, Beane takes it upon himself to develop new strategies.

Prior to the start of the 2002 season, on a trip to visit his counterpart at the Cleveland Indians to discuss trade options, Beane meets nerdy young assistant Peter Brand (Jonah Hill).

Beane is impressed by Brand’s mastery of numbers and a method of statistical analysis known as sabermetrics to determine which players are undervalued.

With Oakland’s inability to keep star players like Jason Giambi, Johnny Damon and Jason Isringhausen, Beane realizes he must approach the game from a different angle.

Some of the film’s most amusing dialogue occurs when Beane introduces Brand to a roomful of grizzled, aging scouts who only value gut feelings and information about the players’ personal lives to judge their baseball potential.

The Yale-educated Brand, with a degree in economics, is dismissed out-of-hand by the old-timers when he suggests that on-base and slugging percentages are determinative of a player’s ultimate performance.

The early stages of the baseball season are not very promising, starting with an effort to convert ailing catcher Scott Hatteberg (Chris Pratt) into a first baseman.

Even if you can’t root for the Athletics, the true baseball fan will ache when the team struggles to get its footing, falling behind in its division.

However, you can root for Billy Beane and his young protégé as they cope with the doubters in their own organization, including the grizzled manager Art Howe (a superbly crusty Philip Seymour Hoffman) who despises the math-driven method of playing ball.

For a movie about baseball, most of the action takes place off the field. Primarily, it’s about the brilliant dialogue and attempts for Beane to find redemption.

“Moneyball” is, at its core, focused on Beane’s checkered history with the game and his desire to fulfill a dream that eluded him during his playing career.

Flashbacks to Beane’s youth, when he was scouted by the New York Mets, tell a story of a young man’s wish to excel at the game even though he was wrongly overvalued as a potential player.

That Beane did not rise to the level of expectations that were held for his career as a player is a motivation for his yearning to manage his way into a contender.

Never fear that talk about statistics and players’ skills dulls the story into a dreadful morass that could only entertain the devotees of statistician Bill James.

Dealing with the intransigence of his team manager Art Howe, Beane is nonetheless confident in his approach. Part of the fun is watching him maneuver around the game’s dinosaurs.

Any sports movie requires the feel-good moments that define the genre. That comes with the incredible game-winning streak late in the 2002 season, when the Athletics set the AL record for winning 20 straight.

Winning is not the only thing, though. The story also triumphs when Beane finds washed-up or undervalued players who surprise the baseball world by their forgotten talent.

Another terrific aspect to “Moneyball” is the pleasing relationship that Beane, a divorced father, has with his young daughter Casey (Kerris Dorsey).

In baseball parlance, “Moneyball” hits a grand slam, the highest score you can obtain in one at-bat. Not just a great baseball movie, this is a winner for story, character and dialogue – all things that should matter.

DVD RELEASE UPDATE

Fans of “Hawaii Five-0” are set for a double treat. The “Eleventh Season” of the venerable crime series, nicely filmed on location, has just been released on DVD.

Much like Jack Lord’s rendering of the upright Steve McGarrett, the DVD release of the old series is a no-frills edition. The only special thing about it is that all 21 episodes are available.

Nearly timed with the start of the second season of the new “Hawaii Five-0” is the DVD release of its “First Season.”

The modern version of “Hawaii Five-O” has a hip take on the old classic series. The buff Alex O’Loughlin now stars as Detective McGarrett, a hotshot Naval officer-turned-cop.

The new “Hawaii Five-0” proved to be a big hit last season, and now all 24 sizzling episodes are available on DVD, along with a bunch of special features and deleted scenes.

Watching the “First Season” will be essential if you want to catch up on the explosive action of the hot new series.

Tim Riley writes film and television reviews for Lake County News.