|
Harball The Movie |
Paramount Pictures
presents a film directed by Brian Robbins. Written by John Gatins. Based
on the book Hardball: A Season in the Projects by Daniel Coyle.
Rated PG-13 (for language and some violence).
Keanu
Reeves strikes out in a gruesome drama about a Little League team playing
in a gangster’s paradise. Hardball
tells the story of a compulsive gambler whose life is turned around by a
season of coaching an inner-city baseball team. Keanu Reeves stars as
Connor O'Neill, whose life revolves around sports bars and the point
spread on the post-Jordan Bulls. "Hardball" uses gambling only
for motivation and atmosphere; we never feel the urgency and desperation
of a man deeply in debt to criminal people. We see a man acting urgent and
desperate, but the juice isn't there. O'Neill turns to a friend in the
investment business for a loan, and the friend makes him an offer: $500
bucks a week to coach a kid's baseball team in the Chicago Housing
Authority league. This is not something O'Neill wants to do, but he needs
the money.
We
meet the kids and of course they're a bunch of unmotivated losers. By the
end of the movie, they will be champions, because the formula demands it.
There's little detail about who these kids really are, and what kinds of
homes they come from. A few dialogue scenes with worried parents, and
that's it. Toward the end, in a truly heartbreaking scene, there's genuine
emotion that makes us realize how much was missing earlier. There's a
low-key love story involving Diane Lane as Elizabeth, who teaches some of
the kids and keeps an eye on O'Neill because she would like him if he
could learn to like himself. The kids, who, when they aren't calling each
other "bitches," are genuinely endearing. But Reeves acts
primarily with a leather jacket and a scowl.
In
contrast to some of Reeves’ other movies, such as the Matrix, he should
be paying us to sit through this movie. Despite its PG-13 rating—it is
decidedly not for kids. Parents looking for cheery "Bad News
Bears" or "Mighty Ducks" escapism will be hard-pressed to
explain the movie's gangland-style violence to youngsters. Little surprise
that the film was originally rated R, until the filmmakers cut some, but
not nearly enough.
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