'Moneyball' is a superior 'David and Goliath' sports movie.You could say it's a baseball film with most of the baseball taken out.It's a film where character and ideas win out over big set-piece action scenes. It's a film about how manage when the odds are down. Fan's of the noble sport will look in vein for much in the way of fist -pumping celebratory excitement, this film is more about obsession and the price and ultimate futility of success. Expect tension,conflict,soul searching and occasional moments of revelation and joy.The drama comes from the central character,general manager Billy Bean never truly being happy even when results are going his way.His only joy outside of Baseball is his daughter. Sadly his marriage has disintegrated as his immersion in his job became ever more complete.
The film scores heavily in terms of performance (Brad Pitt and Phillip Hoffman are excellent)and atmosphere.
It is quite easy to feel that 'Moneyball' is a convincing portrayal of big-business sport,where results and only results are what really matter.The general theme of the movie is that to beat the big boys, you need to work smarter.In this case Billy Bean uses particular data to analyze player performance rather then traditional Baseball method of simply relying on scouts to identify talent.In this way he can isolate those players who have potential and who are relatively undervalued,meaning that he can put together winning teams with capable rejects on a low budget.The only way that small teams like the Atlanta Braves can win big is by expoliting the power of information. First though of course , you need to know what questions to ask in order to get the answer you are looking for. This is Bean's genius.
It sounds very dry,but not so. The power of this film comes from the great work of Pitt and Hoffman and a strong unshowy supporting cast ,a tight script with an eye for telling detail and atmosphere. It's a thinking person's sports film - yes there are some great game sequences but what keeps the attention is Brad Pitt's all too convincing portrayal of that brooding but inspired builder of teams,Billy Bean. Recommended.