The film tells the tale of Billy Beane, general manager of the Oakland Athletics, played here by Brad Pitt. (Ah yes, the Athletics..... One of the few facts I know about baseball is that this team whooped the Minnesota Twins when they had just reached the playoffs!) He's upset because his cheap-as-hell team is losing its edge. He's attempting to trade his players for some of MLB's most expensive players, but he simply cannot afford them. He then meets a Yale Economics graduate named Peter Brand, played by Jonah Hill. Peter suggests taking in what he considers to be very under appreciated players. Billy's hesitant at first, as common sense would say that a man who majored in Economics wouldn't know anything about how baseball works, but Peter helps him to do the math and Billy realizes that these players might be exactly what he needs. However, coach Art Howe, played by Phillip Seymour Hoffman, doesn't use the first three players that Billy and Peter bring in, so they decide to trade the majority of the players just to get the message across.
I always appreciated historical dramas and biopics more than documentaries. Documentaries usually only deliver the facts in a straight-forward manner, and if that's all I wanted, I would read a book or even go on to Wikipedia. Dramas such as Moneyball do more than just deliver the facts; they express the emotions of the scenarios, which not only makes the characters more compelling, but also helps me to understand why things were the way they were. The emotion set within this film is reserved, yet powerful. Billy takes the risk of bringing in all these cheap players from the suggestion of an Economics graduate because he knows that any other path is either unreachable or an inevitable path to nowhere. He takes a leap of faith, but will all of that eventually pay off?
Part of what makes this film so powerful is the performances. Brad Pitt is just as smooth and cocky as he usually is, and he pulls off the reserved emotion quite well. What's really funny about his performance, however, is that when he says something like "I'm doing fantastic!", it's pretty clear that he's using a sarcastic tone. If not for the situation at hand, his performance would've been pretty stale at moments like that, but since we know that he's most certainly NOT doing fantastic, it works. Jonah Hill does great with his character as well. He's shy and nerdy, but he's also not afraid to share his thoughts when he feels it's needed. The rest of the actors play their parts well, adding pressure onto Billy whenever they believe he doesn't know what he's doing.
So, is Moneyball a great film? Absolutely. Is it for everyone? Surprisingly, I do believe so. While it can throw around a lot of statistics that would throw off those not completely crazy about baseball, the story broken down to both its basic and emotional components is intriguing, funny, and dramatic. Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill are stellar in their roles, the dramatic twists the story takes are pretty stunning, and it has a lot of compelling drama that should strike a note with most. Just like Drive and Contagion, Moneyball is a great addition to the Fall season line-up. Definitely check it out!
I would pay $15 to buy this film.
Thanks for reading!
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