Moneyball

I think it is almost impossible for me to review this film. I read and loved the book. When I heard it was being made into a film, and who was making it (script by Aaron Sorkin, acting by Brad Pitt, Jonah Hill, and Philip Seymour Hoffman), I was excited but cautious. The book is about a concept, rather than a story, and it is about one man, rather than a plot. Billy Beane, the general manager of the Oakland A’s and a former failed player himself, fed up with losing to teams with far higher budgets, decides to implement a new way of thinking about baseball. This is a hard thing to put into cinema, but the makers of Moneyball give it a cohesive structure, following the team through the 2002 season, with flashbacks to Beane’s attempt at a career as a player. The pacing is slightly flawed as it so often is in films adapted from real life (a close comparison would be The Social Network). The successes and failures don’t follow a natural pattern until the end of the film. Here, though, they do reach a satisfying and compelling climax. There is good music and intriguing camera movement – for example, long tracking shots – but they do feel slightly out of place. Beane’s relationship with his daughter is a curious addition and there is no mention, for some reason, of an important player and figure in the book: Nick Swisher. Besides this, the focus on Beane’s obsession with winning is compelling, especially towards the end of the film. Ultimately, Pitt perhaps wasn’t the best choice for this role. There is a great tragedy to Beane’s character which is touched on here but not as fully explored as it could’ve been. He didn’t win the World Series; he didn’t go on to manage a better team; and his methods have not been fully embraced by the baseball community. Nonetheless, as soon as it ended I wanted to watch it again, and again. This may, however, say more about my attachment to the book than the quality of the film.