FFVP Review-For Love Of The Game

FOR LOVE OF THE GAME

With some irony, "For Love of the Game" will have opened a week after the death of the legendary Yankee pitcher, Jim Catfish Hunter. I read about the dignity, professionalism, and love he brought to the sport of baseball, capping his short-lived career as the winning pitcher in the last game of the 1978 World Series against the Dodgers. Intentionally or not, "For Love of the Game" evokes the memory of Hunter’s last hurrah.

"For Love of the Game" is a day in the life of Billy Chapel(Kevin Costner), a Detroit Tigers pitcher at the end of a distinguished career. His arm is going and his lifelong mentor and team owner has just sold the ball club. The new owners don’t want Billy Chapel. A trade is in the works - unless - he retires. On the bench or on the mound, it’s his last game with the Tigers. Chapel has to give his fans a game they will remember for the rest of their lives if he is to be remembered at all. All he has to do is block out the pain in his arm, the roar of the crowd, and the loss of Jane(Kelly Preston) who just walked out of his life.

The key moments in Billy Chapel’s life are revealed in flashback between strike outs and innings. And as long as the script and director Sam Raimi stick to Billy’s relationship to the game and the players, "For Love of the Game" is riveting. Raimi makes pitching look like an art form. Each pitch is dissected from Billy’s thoughts on each of his opponents, through the placement of his foot on the mound, the stance of the batter, the signals from the catcher, the choice of the pitch, the wind up, the throw of the ball, to the contact with the catcher’s glove or the bat. His thoughts wander to the role models who formed his view of the world - his father, mother and first manager. The rewards of their efforts are demonstrated in a heartfelt moment when Billy gives a teammate advice after he makes a disastrous play destined to end up on endless reruns of baseball bloopers. The high and low points of his career are shared with Gus(John C. Reilly), the only catcher Billy trusts to call the shots from behind the plate for his last game. Each of these precious moments are ticked off Billy’s mental check list, each strike leading him to a career high and a lifetime low - not having Jane to share a lifelong dream when the reminisces of his past catch up to the present. Unfortunately, the romantic aspects that make up half of "For Love of the Game" undercut the strength of the movie. Their are some wonderful moments played with flirtatious charm between Kevin Costner and Kelly Preston like their chance meeting on a connecting bridge between Yankee Stadium in the Bronx and Manhattan and the early stages of their romance. But the humor inherent in their incongruous romantic relationship is subject to the law of diminishing returns. There is more warmth generated from the friendship between Billy Chapel and his catcher Gus than there are sparks between him and Jane. Neither Raimi, nor the script by Dana Stevens ever captures the essence of what might make opposites attract. The characters voice their admiration for each other’s accomplishments but it is never believable. The best parts of Costner’s and Preston’s scenes together have nothing to do with their relationship, but the celebrity of Billy Chapel. Fans interrupt them for his autograph, and a casual fling is taken for granted. The emotional fallout that results from an accident designed as a dramatic device to drive a wedge in their relationship seems forced while Billy’s anguish over his inability to pitch is all too real. Even the baseball fans who swarm around a TV set at an airport bar to watch Billy in his finest hour outshine Jane as she joins them. The elements of tragedy and triumph work superbly when concentrating on Billy Chapel’s professional career. They miss the mark when the focus shifts to his romantic life.

One can’t fault the screenwriter for the failing of "For Love of the Game"s love story, since the professional aspects of the game of baseball soar to the heights. I suspect Sam Raimi couldn’t strike a balance between the material and Kevin Costner’s clout. Kevin tried to hold on to some scenes he thought were essential to the movie. It had something to with cursing and male nudity. Universal Pictures got the PG-13 rating it wanted, but Kevin’s focus should have been on strengthening the romantic angle. It’s just not thought out as well as the baseball story. The title is "For Love of the Game" - not "For Love of the Game and Jane."

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