"Moneyball"
will be liked by Brad Pitt and baseball fans, which means, in all
likelihood though the movie might open good it will not be a success for
Pitt whose film 'batting average' is not really good. Out of the 25
movies he has been in, of which he has had top, star, billing in 15,
only 5 have been a financial success in the USA!

The
reason I bring this up about Pitt is, that just like film, professional
baseball is run on money no matter what this film wants you to believe.
It is a sad state of affairs that a salary of $200,000 a year is
considered an inferior salary and that a man can 'change' the game of
baseball with only a $39 million budget.

There are a lot of statistics, percentages and a system called Saber-metrics, all easy to understand, that the screenwriters, Steve Zallian and Aaron Sorkin, use to the story's advantage but they also have a separate story trying to show that Billy Beane, (Brad Pitt) is not just a machine wanting to have a winning team. These scenes, with Kerris Dorsey playing his daughter, are touching but distract from the movie.

It's
early in the award season and Pitt is being touted for an Oscar but
though he is believable I didn't feel he did any better than any other
actor could have done though his face is becoming more interesting as he
gets older. Philip Seymour Hoffman, as the team's manager, is wasted as
is in almost a cameo part with star billing is Robin Wright as Beane's ex-wife. The various players have little time to make impressions but
some do while Jonah Hill is a standout as a Harvard graduate who guides Beane in this 'new' way of making a baseball team.

Bennett
Miller, the director, puts the actors through their paces without
distractions and keeps this, based on a true story, with Hollywood
embellishments, film going though a little bit too long.

Rabid Brad Pitt and baseball fans will go for it while others won't be too bored.