Myst Post #2: Hardball (2001)

Myst Post #2: Hardball (2001)

I chose to do my review on Hardball because it really surprised me, in a good way.  Typically, I don't like Keanu Reeves because I think he is way too emotional and strange.  For example, his work in the movie Point Break (1991) just did not fit the role he was playing.  Personally, I feel that this is his best movie because he just plays the role exactly as it should be played.

I gave this movie 4.5 out of 5 stars because I was very pleased with all aspects of this film.  The director does a good job developing Reeeves' character from a pathetic sad sack into a hard working compassionate man.  When the movie starts, Reeves is so far in debt from gambling that his bookie is about to kill him.  He then goes to a man who offers to pay him to coach a little league team made up of  foul mouthed inner city kids who just want to play some baseball.  The kids in this movie really do a spectacular job of portraying kids from the south side of Chicago, most of whom live in the housing projects.  (I also love pretty much any movie that is set in Chicago) I guess just being told about it, I would probably think this movie sounds a lot like Bad News Bears, but it takes place in ghetto rather than a nice suburb.  And that is actually pretty accurate.  Both stories start out with a man who coaching a bunch of kids against his will, but then ends up developing a nice father-figure type relationship with all of them.  One of the things that sets this movie apart from Bad News Bears is how much the personal lives of the kids are followed.  The dangers of living in the housing projects in the south side of Chicago really come through in many aspects of this film.  For example, when Jefferson Albert Tibbs is jumped when walking home from baseball practice.  I thought Reeves did a wonderful job playing a flustered man who, on top of having a bookie that wants him dead, now has to teach some kids who have virtually nothing in common with him how to play baseball.

I would say my favorite scene in the movie is when Keanu takes the whole team to a Cubs game and all of the kids are so excited because they have never been to a major league game before.  Sammy Sosa actually makes a dazzling cameo which is just classic Chicago.  Similar to when Coach Gordon Bombay takes the Mighty Ducks to a Dallas Stars game and all the players get to meet Mike Madano in  the Mighty Ducks.  Another great scene in this movie is when Keanu and his gambling friend are at Slugger's downtown which is also a Chicago landmark.  This is an important scene in the movie because at this point, you think that Keanu is a changed man and he is totally committed to the team, but this scene shows that he still has issues with his gambling addiction.

Most of the scenes in this movie are pretty conversational so the camera is not very close, but it makes the viewer feel as though he is actually there.  There are a lot of shots in this movie of scenery in Chicago which accent the film because it is mostly shots of the projects.  These shots help the viewer to really get a feel for the environment in which this movie is taking place.