In 2001, the A’s made it to the American League Divisional Series against the New York Yankees. The A’s had a payroll of just under $40 million while the Yankees had one over $130 million. Unfortunately the A’s lost. The movie picks up with the final outs being recorded and it goes right into the off season where the A’s lost a few of their vital pieces. First baseman Jason Giambi left to sign with the Yankees, outfielder Johnny Damon joined the Boston Red Sox and relief pitcher Jason Isringhausen went to the St, Louis Cardinals. The scouts wanted to fill these holes with players that put up equal, or better numbers but the owner of the A’s didn’t want to spend the money. Beane, after a visit to Cleveland to meet with the people running the Indians, meets Peter Brand, an Economics major while in Yale, who talks to him about signing those undervalued players.

The whole first hour is made up of meeting with the scouts to talking about his plan and meeting those players, Scott Hatteberg (Chris Pratt; PARKS & RECREATION) a catcher with nerve damage in his throwing elbow, Jeremy Giambi (Nick Porrazzo) brother of Jason Giambi, Chad Bradford (Casey Bond) who is a relief pitcher with a very unorthodox throwing style and aging former superstar David Justice (Stephen Bishop). These players can be signed for pennies compared to some of the names the scouts want. Beane catches hell from the scouts, but he signs them anyway.

When the regular season rolls around, A’s manager Art Howe (Philip Seymour Hoffman) doesn’t want to play any of these players. Instead he wants to use the players he knows. The A’s have a great up and coming rookie first baseman, Carlos Pena, and since Hatteberg has never played that position, Howe refuses to play him. Beane and Howe butt heads many times throughout the season and they get off to a horrible start. It’s not until Beane makes some moves against the wishes of Howe that the team starts to win. These scenes during the season are the best of the movie. Once the games start, the movie becomes more interesting. At one point of the season, the A’s start on a winning streak, and it’s handled very well. There is a great deal of suspense here as the viewer is taken on an emotional ride with the team.

The script, by Oscar winners Steven Zaillian (SCHINDLER’S LIST) and Aaron Sorkin (THE SOCIAL NETWORK) from the book, Moneyball, by Michael Lewis, is a good one. It’s well written and the characters are relatable. The acting is really good. Brad Pitt as Billy Beane, while not Oscar worthy, gives a really solid performance. He evokes a lot of emotion and you really feel for him during his down time when the team is losing. Jonah Hill as Peter Brand is great here. This is his second best performance behind his role as Cyrus in CYRUS. Known more as the funny, fat guy, Hill really excels in roles like these with less comedy and more drama. Hoffman as Art Howe (while miscast due to looks) is good as the subdued manager. The only wasted performance is from Robin Wright as Sharon, Beanes ex-wife. She has a small 2 minute role and there’s really nothing there. This is a part of the movie that could have been cut out.

The problem with the movie comes from the directing. This is Bennett Miller’s second movie (CAPOTE was his first) and you can tell. The pacing, especially during the scenes without baseball, are not very good. The movie feels overly long, this 2 hour movie feels more like 3 1/2 hours. There are scenes where it’s just Beane and the scouts sitting around talking about who to sign, and these scenes seem to go on for far too long. This movie really is the case of the acting being much better than the movie. Maybe with a better, more accomplished director at the helm, the movie could have been better.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

The book was written by Andrew Young, who was once an aide to John Edwards, and was published by Thomas Dunne Books earlier this year. Sorkin states that “this is a first-hand account of an extraordinary story filled with motivations, decisions and consequences that would have lit Shakespeare up.” Sorkin also notes “there’s much more to Andrew’s book than what has been reported, and I’m grateful that he’s trusting me with it.”

Sorkin will also be writing and producing the project. However, a studio has yet to get involved. The screenwriter isn’t any stranger to political films. He previously wrote A Few Good Men, The American President, and Charlier Wilson’s War. Sorkin just recently wrote the screenplay for David Fincher’s The Social Network, due out in October. He also co-wrote Moneyball, which is currently filming. Both of those projects are from Sony, so it may be a good chance this film will be picked up by them.

Set primarily in the late 1970s and early 1980s, story will be told through the eyes of the controversial organization’s charismatic founding members, Bob Hunter and Rex Weyler. The duo led an eccentric group of pacifists, ecologists, musicians, teachers, sailors, and scientists as they attempted — often successfully — to disrupt American and French nuclear bomb tests, Japanese and Russian whaling ships and Norwegian infant harp seal hunters. In the process, they inadvertently started a movement that is still going strong nearly four decades later.

Producing under Aurelius Films is Matthew Joynes and Jesse Kennedy with Turteltaub himself under Junction Entertainment. At the moment Aaron Sorkin is in negotiations to pen the script. Sorkin’s previous work includes the Tom Hanks starring film Charlie Wilson’s War and the impending Facebook movie called The Social Network starring Zombieland lead Jesse Eisenberg.

Source: MakingOf.com