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Sam Raimi has lost his edge. That's not saying that this is a bad movie, it just doesn't feel or look like a Sam Raimi film. Early in the film there is a very cool shot, but that was it. The photography is better then most movies of this type, but it's not the stuff we're accustomed to. Early in his career, in fact his first movie, Evil Dead, he set up a very recognizable style, a lot of fancy camera moves, zooms, extreme closeups, and odd angles. He continued this through The Quick and the Dead, which seemed to be nothing but fancy shots, and I loved it for that, I seemed to be one of the few who enjoyed that western. A Simple Plan brought about a more "mature" film maker, it was a brilliantly tense thriller, thoroughly overlooked by everyone. The camera was still, but the photography was still beautiful. Now this film, For Love of the Game, what Kevin Costner does best, baseball movies. He's Billy Chapel, a long time, Hall of Fame caliber pitcher, towards the end of his career. There's a bit of a spoiler here, but it's something you find out in the first five minutes. Billy has played for the Detroit Tigers his whole career, but now the owner is selling the team, and the new owners want to trade Billy to the Giants. To top that off, his girlfriend Jane, played by Kelly Preston, lets him know she's moving to London without him. He's got a game to play, and tells his longtime friend and catcher, John C. Reilly, "I'm going to throw hard today." This is when the coolest shot of the film comes, something that all major league pitchers probably do, clear everything out of their head except the ball and the batter, we get to see this. He starts to play what could be a perfect game, throughout we flashback to his life. Mostly it's about his love story with Jane, how they met, their life together, why she's leaving. Sprinkled in are tidbits of him as kid, and a few highlights from his career. I would have liked to see much more about his childhood, and his dad who taught him to love baseball. Overall it's an entertaining film, that keeps you interested and wanting to learn about his life. Overly sappy at times, with a way to many love songs in the soundtrack, which are supposed to clue you in on how to feel at that moment in the plot. Also I deffinetly wouldn't call it a sports movie. It's a romantic/drama about a baseball player. All the performances are passable. I personally enjoyed Bull Durham more, and The Natural is still the best baseball movie ever made. I know Sam Raimi is trying to get into more mainstream film making, and this was a nice experiment. But in the future, I hope he tries to pick projects that more reflect his style and dark side. |
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