Have to say, I thought this movie was going to be more upbeat. I prefer my sports movies upbeat. Think Rocky! Major League! Blind Side! Heck…The Color of Money! :) I did like the winning home run in the bottom of the 9th by the 1st baseman who was given his second chance on the As. That was feel good. But that was kind of it.
The acting and casting were good. Philip Seymour Hoffman was almost unrecognizable as a baseball manager and Robin Wright Penn (does she still use Penn?) has a small role as Brad’s ex-wife. But (SPOILER!!!!……if you don’t follow baseball anyway) he loses again. BUT his system is considered a winner so receives a huge offer from another team (The Red Sox who do go on to win the World Series using his system) but then turns that down to stay in Oakland where he is still losing to this day.
And you could say “well the team was his family so he wanted to stay with them.” That would be a fine argument, but it was made clear that he didn’t view it that way. That it was business. He didn’t fraternize with the players so it could stay business. So he could trade or cut them if needed. And they (the players) understood how it worked because they were professional ball players.
I suppose you could argue he wanted to stay in CA to be closer to his daughter. But I don’t think they made that clear at all if that was the defining motive to stay.
And, perhaps most importantly, Brad didn’t look all that cute in it. What is up with that?
So then message here was….?
p.s. it was funny that Brad was eating in most scenes like in Ocean’s Eleven and Twelve.
