MONEY shot in the BALLs

MONEYBALL, coming to theaters near you, is not a sports movie, at least not in the traditional, saccharine quest that’s come to define the genre. Think THE NATURAL. MIGHTY DUCKS. MIRACLE. Even ANY GIVEN SUNDAY. Because this movie isn’t about the heart of the athlete or even the coach, not really. And it’s not about some athlete who goes from nobody to somebody. It’s about the numbers, pure and simple.

To start off I hate baseball. Everybody always yells at me “But it’s America’s national pastime”. To that I say so is slavery and imperialism. Baseball I find to be filled with this nostalgic whimsy that directs people’s attention from the fact that it’s the slowest activity to be called “a sport” in the history of mankind.  It romanticizes this sport, romanticizes the 1 moment when a round ball flies by a Neanderthal club, romanticizes the heart in the player who comes out of retirement after being near-fatally shot by some crazy broad to fill the world with hope (though in the book THE NATURAL gives in the gamblers because after he hits that home run, what the fuck is he gonna do? Hopefully just disappear for all the fans care). And that’s the point Billy Beane, to be played by a phenomenal Brad Pitt, tries to drive home – throwing the romance aside, this “sport” can be reduced to little more than numbers, an equation acted out by human beings instead of digits and ASMD symbols.

But even more, iMONEYBALL’s about Man’s Ambition to disprove the old lore surrounding this sport. To fight against the establishment. That should be any great man’s goal – to subvert the powers that be, to revolutionize atavistic systems, and to tell the old codgers who’ve been scampering through the same rut since the Civil War that their time is up.

It’s harsh, sure, but that’s the reality this film drives home. And hell, such was the process of making the movie, a superman quest running through 6 writers and 2 directors, various manifestations of supporting cast, and even switching from being more realistic and documentary to being restructured and redefined into a biopic non-baseball-fans, like myself, might even watch.

I can see Brad Pitt as Billy Beane. Jonah Hill will kill it as Peter Brand (formerly Paul DePodesta, fictionalized in the quest to make him seem more real), and Chris Pratt will make a decent Hatteberg, the only character who has a traditional “personal victory” sports moment. Not sure I’m feeling Philip Seymour Hoffman as Art Howe – would need to be a bit gruffer, tougher, in my opinion – but, as always, you can’t him out since Hoffman is possibly the best actor in the current world.

This will probably be a baseball player’s movie – apparently Hill was told these people talk about baseball like he talks about movies and he studied up accordingly so be ready for that. And the stat-trading in pro athletes is a much greater national pastime than the old round ball and bat.

On the other side, when was the last time a sports movie that wasn’t a character study on fighters got attention? If any can break that streak, it’s MONEYBALL.

I’m predicting an open in the low to mid 20 millions. Not bad. But then again, with the cast, anything’s possible, right? Let’s have some heart and forget the numbers. Or maybe not . . . 

- Ryan