'On paper, this is the best team you can put together, but [insert a sport here] is not played on paper' -- I am sure we've all heard commentators and analysts mutter this line time and again. In Moneyball, though, the game actually is, so to speak, played on paper.
Peter Brand, a Yale economics graduate who, by the looks of it, hasn't ever played a game of baseball, develops a system to distinguish undervalued players after number crunching on years of statistics. Billy Beane, the general manager of a team working on a shoestring budget, puts all his faith in that concept and decides to implement it. He knows that the current method of evaluating players is flawed but isn't able to put his finger on what it is that doesn't work. Beane's marriage has failed already and he doesn't like seeing his daughter worry for him. Years ago, his life lost track due to a scout's misjudgment and he is determined to change the way baseball works. It all comes down to his decision of seeing it through, trusting the judgement of Brand against the experience of many other scouts, including himself. This big idea has to work, or its down to being the manager of a sports good store. It takes a lot of guts to adopt such an unorthodox way of scouting, and Beane has it. But I feel Brand is the real hero for coming up with something like that in the first place. We also have the team manager Art Howe, played by Hoffman, having a little turf war with Beane.
Sports films generally thrive on these 'lets-go-out-and-show-them-who-we-are' moments, but Moneyball has none of it. Most of the action takes place in office rooms, in front of a computer or while watching footage of old matches. The excitement lies in seeing the plan pan out well. I wouldn't call the movie predictable, but like with other sport films, one can more or less tell what's going to happen. Bennett Miller makes great use of actual footage and the juxtaposition with filmed scenes creates an odd realism. The Sorkin/Zaillian screenplay simply flies at breakneck speed. Pitt is really good. I liked Jonah Hill a lot too. It's a good movie, not a great one.