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For Love of the Game (15-Sep-1999)
Director: Sam Raimi Keywords: Drama, Baseball
REVIEWS Review by Walter Frith (posted on 12-Jul-2007) Kevin Costner was on top of the world at the end of the 1980's. He had 'The
Untouchables', 'Bull Durham' and 'Field of Dreams' all on his list of
accomplishments and he still would win two Oscars for directing and
co-producing 'Dances With Wolves' in 1990 and would give his best
performance ever in 1991's 'JFK'. How things change. By the end of the
1990's, Costner has had a string of turkeys and/or lukewarm projects
far below his potential. 'Waterworld' and 'The Postman' would bring him
severe ridicule (although I thoroughly enjoyed and rated 'The Postman'
highly). All actors struggle at some point in their career but it's
been an 8 year struggle for Costner now and things don't get any better
with 'For Love of the Game'. In this film, Costner plays Billy Chapel,
a 19 year pitching veteran of the Detroit Tigers. The opening credits
show newspaper headlines and home movies of Chapel's early life
throwing the ball around with his father and his rise from the little
leagues to the minor leagues to the major leagues. Set for a place in
the hall of fame, Chapel is about to come face to face with his most
important game ever as he takes the mound at the loneliest place in
baseball, as a visiting player at Yankee Stadium. As he is the midst of
pitching a perfect game, Chapel reflects on his past, predominantly on
his 5 year relationship with a writer named Jane Aubrey (Kelly Preston)
and her teenage daughter (Jena Malone). Costner's reflection on the
past is not an easy one since he met face to face with Jane on this
game day and she tells him she is ending their relationship and moving
to London to accept a better job. When I first read about the plot for
this film where Chapel reflects on his past while possibly pitching a
perfect game, I assumed we would see Billy Chapel in his glory days as
a player and the many things that a pitcher remembers. Winning his
first World Series, hitting his first batter, being involved in his
first bench clearing brawl and his overall relationship with baseball
and his fellow team mates. Instead, the film takes a shallow and overly
repetitive turn and reflects only on Costner's romantic past with the
woman in his life so the film turns out to be more about the needless
romantic sub plot instead of about the game that Costner says he loves.
This is a major disappointment, especially to people such as myself who
truly love baseball. Using baseball as a metaphor for 'Field of Dreams'
worked because that film possessed a dream like quality about life's
transcending moments of regret, the desire to fulfill dreams and the
question of whether there is another world after this one. It was a
film that had hypnotic beauty and looked very original. 'Bull Durham'
was an authentic look at life on the road in the minor leagues but the
film was riddled with too much sexual innuendo and I have never really
enjoyed it very much as it failed to nail down what it was REALLY
about. 'For Love of the Game' is written by Dana Stevens based on the
novel by Michael Shaara and is directed with ordinary tendencies by Sam
Raimi who made 1998's 'A Simple Plan' which was very depressing but was
better film making than this movie which has absolutely no memorable
qualities whatsoever and is just another exercise in telling another
love story which neither convinces us that the people involved really
care about each other nor does it do anything for the game of baseball.
Incidentally, if you've seen a particular clip from the advertising
spots for the film and know the plot going in, it won't be too hard for
you to figure out whether or not Chapel gets his perfect game. If
Costner is smart, maybe he will make a truly authentic baseball movie
to celebrate the game he is crazy about. Maybe a biography of a famous
player would be a good idea. Visit FILM FOLLOW-UP by Walter Frith
Locate a copy of this film here.
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