Hardball movie review & film summary (2001)
'Hardball' informs the tale of an uncontrollable bettor whose life is transformed about by a period of training an inner-city baseball group. That seems like a winning formula for a movie, and it may be, if the tale informed us more about gambling, more about the internal city and more about training baseball. But it wanders over the surface of its all-natural topics, content to be a category picture. We're constantly familiar with the formula--and in a photo based upon reality, we should not be.
Keanu Reeves celebrities as Conor O'Neill, whose life focuses on sporting activities bars and the point spread out on the post-Jordan Bulls. Real, banking on the Bulls is simply about the just way to develop rate of passion in the group nowadays, but compared with movies such as "The Bettor" and "California Split," "Hardball" uses gambling simply for inspiration and atmosphere; we never ever feel the seriousness and despair of a guy deeply in financial obligation to bad individuals. Oh, we see a guy acting immediate and determined, but the juice isn't there. Consider the scene where O'Neill negotiates a regular payment plan with a collector; they could be exercising the installations on a car.
'Hardball' informs the tale of an uncontrollable bettor whose life is transformed about by a period of training an inner-city baseball group. That seems like a winning formula for a movie, and it may be, if the tale informed us more about gambling, more about the internal city and more about training baseball. But it wanders over the surface of its all-natural topics, content to be a category picture. We're constantly familiar with the formula--and in a photo based upon reality, we should not be.
Keanu Reeves celebrities as Conor O'Neill, whose life focuses on sporting activities bars and the point spread out on the post-Jordan Bulls. Real, banking on the Bulls is simply about the just way to develop rate of passion in the group nowadays, but compared with movies such as "The Bettor" and "California Split," "Hardball" uses gambling simply for inspiration and atmosphere; we never ever feel the seriousness and despair of a guy deeply in financial obligation to bad individuals. Oh, we see a guy acting immediate and determined, but the juice isn't there. Consider the scene where O'Neill negotiates a regular payment plan with a collector; they could be exercising the installations on a car.
As the trainer, O'Neill mainly addresses the kids en masse, not separately. His discussion is composed of the announcement of plot factors (he likes them, he does not, he's quitting, he's remaining, he's taking them to a Cubs video game, they need to count on themselves). There's not, as nearly as I can remember, a solitary one-on-one scene where he informs a youngster anything specific about baseball strategy. For that issue, does he know anything about baseball? In many scenes he simply lines them up and hectors them, and they appear like kids patiently watching some insane white man exercise his problems.
There is a subtle romance including Diane Lane as Elizabeth, that instructs some of the kids and maintains an eye on O'Neill because she would certainly such as him if (can you see this coming?) he could learn how to such as himself. I suched as the quality of a minute when O'Neill damages right into a discussion to say, "You such as me! You simply looked at me a specific way, and I could see you suched as me." The rhythm of the formula was broken for a minute, and it really felt nice.
The movie is based upon guide Hardball: A Period in the Jobs, by Daniel Coyle, unread by me, based upon life. I doubt guide is as inauthentic as the movie; the screenplay shows indications of having actually been slanted in the instructions of the basic Hollywood workshop tale framework where we obtain a dilemma because it is time for one. And Keanu Reeves appears subdued in the role--so glum and far-off, we wonder why we should treatment if he does not. He retails some of his discussion with excessive hand movements, as if attempting to guide his sentences in for a touchdown.
There was debate when the movie was made because the discussion consisted of various words that would certainly be used by most kids on any baseball group. I think I found a pair of times when an eight-letter word was dubbed in for its seven-letter basic synonym. Why trouble? Kids talk by doing this. We might as well face it.