Moneyball is a very interesting film based on a true story that captivates you from the beginning. Starring Brad Pitt as the main role, he portrays Billy Beane, a bust player in Major League Baseball who went on to be the General Manager for the Oakland Athletics. The story is not as much about baseball as it is a character study on one of the biggest underdogs of the beginning of the millennium. It delivers in terms of expectations, and is sure to captivate you.
Desperate to win on what seems to be the equivalent of a shoe-string budget, Billy Beane hires Peter Brand (Jonah Hill), a recent Stanford graduate with a degree in economics, and a huge love for baseball. He tells Beane to sign players based on statistics most teams overlooked, where players worth three million dollars are available for three hundred thousand. And the team only has slightly less than 40 million dollars.As you can see from the story, this is an underdog film. It seems as though 2011 was the year to inspire, including Moneyball, a dolphin that lived with half a tail, and Rocky in the future. Is this necessarily a bad thing? No. In fact, Real Steel is a good, underrated movie; however, Moneyball is a great movie. It has superlative acting, especially from Brad Pitt, who gives his best performance since Benjamin Button.
Jonah Hill, too, is worthy of being mentioned for his performance. Despite being nominated for an Oscar, he knows he won't win. Though it is not to forget, because Hill was terrific as the quirky, nerdy character. It could be considered a flaw since the second you see him, you can tell he's the nerdy personality, but I feel it helps the movie feel more fleshed out and, frankly, more interesting.Truly what steals the film, though, is the script. Adapted by Oscar-winners and masterminds Aaron Sorkin and Steven Zaillian, they are geniuses with some of the purest humor and most intelligent of conversations. It is always easy to identify when you see who wrote what. You say to yourself, "Yeah, that's a Sorkin moment," and you just smile and love it.
Overall, this film is such a joy. It is definitely worth multiple viewings, and can capture attention so well without overly throwing it into your face. Moneyball is something any regular moviegoer should go and rent at a local Blockbuster, as this film receives a 3.5/4.
