Moneyball - 7 stars out of 10

Moneyball - 7 stars out of 10

"Moneyball" is an enjoyable film for any fan of baseball as it offers an opportunity to see what happens behind the scenes.  I tells that amazing true story of the 2002 Oakland Athletics whose general manager used an unorthodox approach to putting together a winning team on a very limited budget.  As a warning, the movie does move very slow for the first hour and might lose you if you aren't interested in baseball.  I attribute a lot of the slow pace to a lack of musical score to create a flow in the film.  Once the baseball sequences, the film gains momentum that lasts until the very end but the slow pace of the first half made the film seem really long.  Brad Pitt is excellent as Billy Bean and he can chalk up one more successful role on his long resume.  The screenwriters wanted this to be a dramedy, making Brad a perfect candidate to create both comedic and dramatic moments, but I don't believe that the comedy translated very well.  There are definitely "amusing" moments but the majority of the film reads as drama.  That's actually okay with me, since the dramatic difficulties faced by the main character emphasize the themes of failure in his life and the need to provide for his daughter.  Jonah Hill is perfect in the role of Peter Brand (who is actually a composite character primarily based on the assistant general manager to the A's).  He brings the necessary geekiness to the role while selling the audience on this philosophy of creating a team.  The other actor of note is Philip Seymour Hoffman, who gives a performance far below his standard.  It is really interesting to see familiar baseball players portrayed on the screen and the entire film has a magical feeling as you realize that this unlikely scenario actually occured.  I'm not sure if I would recommend this to non-baseball fans but the drama is great and it properly explains this unlikely (but successful) story.