Movies

Based on Michael Lewis' non-fiction book, Moneyball pitches a baseball movie that is not about obvious success, but rather a deeper, quieter victory, throwing Brad Pitt possibly his best ball ever. Director Bennett Miller (Capote) wisely fills the bases with high-hitting screenwriters Steven Zaillian (Schindler's List) and Aaron Sorkin (The Social Network).

Billy Beane (Pitt) is GM of the Oakland A's and can't match the financial firepower of the big boys. Star players get poached and Beane has to think left-field to succeed.

He enlists Peter Brand (Jonah Hill), an Ivy League baseball-loving economist. They use computer analysis to create a new team, based not on potential, as highly paid all-stars are, but on results in various areas of the field. These supposedly inferior (but cheaper) players make a greater whole, a contending team to take on the majors. And so Beane inadvertently revolutionises the way baseball is run.

Golden boy Pitt and nerdy Hill make a great odd couple, battling conservatism all the way, most pointedly in the continual clash with head coach Art Howe (a wonderfully understated performance by Philip Seymour Hoffman). As Brand says, "the first guy through a wall always gets bloodied".

Pitt shows real gravitas as Beane, a former big league player, whose own potential resulted in failure. Beane is driven to succeed and the movie shows him redefining what courage and success are, where values are placed, on the field and off. This is shown poignantly in Beane's relationship with his daughter, Casey (Kerris Dorsey).

There is victory but no series-winning game, and that is what places Moneyball well above the usual sports movie template: team wins, coach on the players' shoulders, yada yada.

If you want a movie about real values, then you're in the right ballpark.