film review: moneyball

Brad Pitt stars as failed baseball player Billy Beane in Moneyball, a film that follows Beane’s attempts to change the game he loves as general manager of the Oakland Athletics. Crushed by a loss at the close of the season and frustrated by a budget that isn’t big enough to make his star players stay, Beane is determined to remake his team in any way possible.

The film starts off incredibly slowly, and it’s not clear why this true story was worth making into both a book and a film until Billy comes across Peter Brand (Jonah Hill), a Yale Economics graduate who sees baseball a little differently to those around him. He has faith in a numerical system of picking players that strips away the focus on popularity and factors that don’t have to do with the actual game itself.

Billy takes a chance on these ideas, pushing the system further than even Peter himself had imagined. At first, the baseball world thinks Beane has lost his mind. He starts to agree until the deadline for trading players forces him to make the tough choices needed to give the Oakland A’s a real chance.

The depth of Pitt’s Billy Beane, who refuses to watch his team play and doesn’t want to get too close to his players, is definitely a strength. Pitt portrays a man searching for a way to finally prove himself and have a real affect on baseball. The events of his past are mentioned only occasionally in the present day storyline, but flashbacks cleverly explain who Beane is and how he got where he is. This is not only necessary for non-baseball fans, but also gives Beane’s attempts to do the impossible much greater meaning.

The humour in this film is subtle and clever, which isn’t surprising considering the West Wing’s Aaron Sorkin co-wrote the screenplay. It’s a quiet film at first, the rise of the Oakland A’s is told in a way that creates real suspense and excitement. The dynamic between Pitt and Hill is one of the film’s most enjoyable aspects, with Hill definitely showing his range in a film very different to Superbad.

As for the actual baseball, the games are represented using a mixture of dramatisation and actual footage. This reminds the viewer of the reality of the story, which adds an extra sense of awe to the achievements of the A’s. Even though it has rather clichéd sports movie aspects (such as the underdog team achieving success) the story is ultimately very personal and always returns to Beane himself. By the end of the film, it is obvious that Billy’s life and achievements are definitely a story worth being told.

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