Globoscope
An overdose of Americana

Bennett Miller’s Moneyball, which is about the big money in sport and the never-say-die spirit of the game, begins well but turns into a drag during the later part

In the United States, baseball is the national game and has as much a following as cricket has in India. Baseball has produced such legends like Babe Ruth and songs like "Take Me Out to the Ballgame". Bennett Miller’s Moneyball is yet another film about the game and its retrace competition. It shows how an unorthodox general manager of Oakland Athletics Billy Beane is able to take his team to the top despite competition from the renowned New York Yankees.

Based on a novel of the same name by Michael Lewis, it is about the 2003 season, when despite financial constraints, Beane hires an ace pitcher Chat Bradford (Casey Bond) and a specialist catcher Scott Hattenberg (Chris Pratt). Beane, however, encounters stiff opposition from athletics general manager Art Howe (Phillip Seymour Hoffman).

Mounted on a massive scale with larger-than-life-sets, Moneyball is all of 133 minutes, and that probably is its major setback. If all that material had been packed into just 100 minutes, it would have made a big difference for international audiences.

True, the conflict between two major stars Brad Pitt and Phillip Seymour Hoffman gives it a major thrust and the screenplay by Steven Zillian and Aaron Sorkin is powerful and keeps the film going for most of the time, with Casey Bond and Chris Pratt providing the necessary support. Robin Wright as Beane’s ex-wife Sharon is the lone female in an all-male cast.

Moneyball is all about inculcating the never-say-die spirit but it also shows the big part money plays in today’s sport. It also asks the much-posed question: "How much is enough?" for these big stars as it is for soccer stars in Europe.

And though the first half is taut and even comprehensive, it is the latter half that drags on despite some telling camerawork by Wally Pfister and apt background music by Michael Dania. The editing is poor and this boomerangs on the overall effect. In totality, it is an overdose of Americana where less should have been more. Instead, it prolongs the agony. Sadly.

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