This is the story of a baseball team manager who decides to forego the accumulated wisdom of his current staff and instead look away from personalities and apparent talent, and judge only on statistics and how that affects the overall team performance – sounds like an exciting Saturday night’s entertainment doesn’t it? No, you’re right is sounds dry as dust boring, so why isn’t it?
Well it could be because the Oakland Athletics, the team involved are a much poorer team than any others you’ve probably heard of, and so it starts out as a clever and well-acted David vs Goliath(s) story where the intelligent but impoverished guys pit their wits and meagre budget against the big guns to eventually produce one of the longest unbeaten runs in baseball history.
Brad Pitt’s performance as General Manager, Billy Beane is convincing and seemingly unconventional, Jonah Hill as his statistic-mashing sidekick is mostly expressionless until he gets excited by the big algorithms, and Philip Seymour Hoffman turns up as a unlikely, and frustrated team coach – it all pulls together in a slightly strange and unlikely way, by focussing on people and the somewhat callous and rudimentary way a business deals with them – first as valued assets to be wooed into playing but eventually as an inconvenience to be moved on, disposed of or let go. It’s overall a very human movie; one with more personality than first appears, and one you might be tempted to watch more than once like I did.
Certificate: 12
2 hours 13 minutes
Director: Bennett Miller
Cast: Brad Pitt, Jonah Hill, Philip Seymour Hoffman
Screenplay: Steven Zaillian / Aaron Sorkin
Based on the book: Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game / Michael Lewis
