Moneyball

Succeed at any cost

English (A)
Cast: Brad Pitt, Jonah Hill, Philip Seymour Hoffman
Director: Bennett Miller

A film on baseball is not something we in India would be thrilled about (thumbs up if it was cricket!) but Moneyball is a different ball game altogether. It is one man’s quest to break conventional rules of the game and succeed, a true story based on Michael Lewis’ book by the same name.

Billy Beane (Pitt), the general manager of the Oakland Athletics team defies all conventional methods to replace three of the best players in his team, on a minimal budget. For this, he seeks the help of a chubby economics graduate from Yale, Peter Brand (Hill).

Peter does an extensive player evaluation and compiles a list of baseball players with their playing styles, positives and negatives. The duo use statistics, intuition and unconventional thinking to select undervalued players for their team which is opposed by all the veteran managers, including the coach (Hoffman).

Billy is sharp-tongued, arrogant at times, but he always seems to know what he’s doing. He tries to prove that a team doesn’t necessarily need the million-buck players to succeed.

In today’s world, where big bucks are thrown on players regardless of the sport, Moneyball sets an example that the value of players matter more.

The movie has minimal background music (I would be concerned if violins played loud in sad scenes in a sports movie). Brad Pitt has done justice to his role. He passes on his passion for the sport through his charming, yet assertive character and that is exactly what Billy professes ‘How can you not be romantic about baseball?’

Moneyball with its theme joins others in making a strong pitch for the Oscars next week. Game anybody?