Moneyball

Screenwriter Aaron Sorkin (who co-wrote Moneyball alongside Steve Zaillian) has a talent for taking dry, nerdy business-oriented subjects, and turning them into great entertainments. Last year around this time, he hit critical and box office paydirt with The Social Network, a movie about the creation of Facebook that could have been a dullard, but wound up being my favorite movie of last year, thanks to its sharp dialogue, great direction, and an emotional theme. All the facts, numbers, and complicated statistics were there on the screen, but it was moved along by a very human story.

Moneyball tries for a similar formula, and though it comes up short compared to Sorkin's last film, it's still a much more entertaining film than one could imagine walking in. This is an unconventional sports movie, in that it's not about the players or the game itself, but about the General Mangers who work behind the scenes, pick the players, make trades during the seasons, and do a lot of wheelings and dealings. Once again, we have a sharply written and well acted movie that manages to make what could have been a dry and dull subject matter (or at least something that sounds like it would have worked better as a documentary), and make it completely fascinating. The only thing holding it back from the greatness Social Network achieved one year ago is that it's not quite as emotionally compelling.

Based on the 2003 nonfiction book of the same name, the film takes a look at the baseball team the Oakland A's about a decade ago, when the team had such a low budget to work with, they couldn't afford the top players that were up for drafting. General Manager Billy Beane (Brad Pitt, who hasn't been this charismatic in a performance in a while) is a man who is tired of losing. He had a career as a professional player in the 80s, only to have it not lead anywhere. As the film opens, he's faced with more losses, as the Oakland A's have just lost the 2001 World Series, and three of their best players have been lured away to wealthier teams with deeper pockets. Billy knows he doesn't have the money or the resources to create the kind of team he wants. Until he learns of an alternative method of hiring players from Peter Brand (Jonah Hill), a Yale graduate who came up with a system to hook up overlooked ball players at dirt cheap prices.

Peter's system uses statistics and stats to show potential in undervalued players. Using this system, Billy is able to drum up a dirt cheap team that at first looks like a joke, even to those on the team. Why is Billy listening to this pudgy, withdrawn Yale kid, rather than his fellow managers, who have years of baseball experience? The team seems like a losing gamble at first, but as the season goes on, and Billy makes some smart trades and actions, the Oakland A's begin to have a record-setting string of winning games. But, Moneyball is not really interested in the big game, or the A's winning streak. It's mainly set behind the scenes. Billy doesn't even usually like to watch the games. He'll turn the game on once in a while, to see how things are going, but for the most part, we follow him through the corporate offices of the team, not through the ballpark itself.

This becomes both one of the strongest aspects of the film, and also one of its failings. The strong comes from the fact that this is a side of the sport that we haven't really seen in movies before, and it's kind of fascinating to see what goes on with the business side of things. The failing comes from the fact that although the screenplay is often very technical and fascinating, it comes at the sacrifice of some human emotion. While it is there in some form (particularly a subplot concerning Billy and his 12-year-old daughter from a failed marriage), the movie is almost entirely "inside" the sport. I think this will be a bigger problem for some than others. The movie runs a bit long, and sometimes becomes a bit too obsessed with stats and numbers, to the point that the characters and emotions almost seem to be second.

But, the movie always pulls through, and is never once boring. It has a wonderful star turn from Pitt, who shows a great deal of personality for playing a character who's a bit of a shut in, and doesn't even really like mingling with the players all that much. His life is his job, aside from the time he spends with his daughter, and Pitt is able to show both the intensity, and the humanity of his character. As Peter Brand, Jonah Hill is very quiet, but likable, as a guy who is out of his element with all these grizzled baseball pros. He's confident in his ideas, and by being around Billy, he's able to have the confidence to speak up about them. We get the sense he's someone who hasn't been taken seriously a lot in his life, so the fact that Billy is willing to put so much stock in his unorthodox ideas to picking players is the first vote of confidence he's heard in a while, if not ever.

Moneyball is a movie filled with great moments, but just misses the mark of greatness itself by being too wrapped up in its own technicalities. Some viewers may be divided, but I don't see a lot of complaints coming. Even if it doesn't reach the heights it aims for, it's still immensely entertaining, and holds wonderful performances by Pitt, Hill, and Philip Seymour Hoffman, who plays the team's coach. I would have liked a bit more emotion, but this is still one of the finer baseball movies to come out in a while.

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