I haven’t seen Brad Pitt in a movie since Brian and I had to leave TROY because we were snorting, snickering, guffawing, and generally disturbing the peace of the moviegoing public. The California surfer-boy as Ancient Superstar was simply too much for us. But that was a long time ago, so it was time to give the man another chance.
Today, there was no danger of disturbing anyone because we had the whole theater to ourselves, only the second time I have had a private showing. The first time was Nutcracker 3D last holiday season, but trust me, you don’t want to go there. (see my review if you want: worst movie ever)
MONEYBALL is a docudrama about Billy Beane, the Oakland A’s current general manager. Mr. Beane has the brainy idea to hire guys whose skills are necessary in the aggregate rather than simply hiring big name guys with hot girlfriends. This seems like a reasonable plan, but Old Boy Networks being what they are, he took a lot of flack for it.
Helping him out is his fat sidekick Pete (Jonah Hill), don’t get me started on how fat guys (here) and generally disgusting guys (Jack Black) can get great roles while fat disgusting women…oh, wait, there’s a whole show dedicated to them on TLC, I’ve seen the commercials. Of course, Brad Pitt doesn’t come around in that show, and they should make a note of it.
He’s busy with his kids, and Billy Beane also learns a thing or two about fatherhood and the place it should take in a man’s life in this movie, but all my friends are out at COURAGEOUS, which I refuse to see, learning about how to be dads. (I know that sentence isn’t really a sentence, but I got discombobulated talking about Brad Pitt’s children in the same sentence with COURAGEOUS, go figure.)
The plot isn’t real deep: new strategy for hiring and playing players, let’s hope it works out, it does, high five, cheer.
I looked Mr. Beane up on Wikipedia, and I learned that he’s still with Oakland and he still hasn’t won a World Series, but here’s the deal, and everyone should listen up: You don’t have to win the World Series to be a winner. Shoot, getting to MLB is winning in itself. Playing in front of 80,000 people is winning. Being paid several hundred thousand or a couple of million dollars a season is winning.
We can all take this moral to the bank. Having kids is winning, whether the kids “turn out” as you want them to or whether they take up feng shui. Having a paying job in today’s market is winning, whether or not you’re on the C-level. Being in law school is winning, whether you’re going to totally flub your legal writing course or not. You get the point.
The point is that Billy Beane became a winner when he realized the old way of picking teams wasn’t the best way. The new way is better. The new way wins more games for less money. The new way is now the ordinary way, now the usual way, now the way the game is played. Series ring or not, that must sit pretty well with Mr. Beane.
And as for Mr. Pitt, I thought he did a really nice job. I liked him a lot. I could be a fan maybe.
