For Love of the Game is actually two movies in one: A baseball movie and a romance. The sporting sequences are easily worth 5 stars and familiar romantic stuff rates a solid 3. As a whole, how much you like it depends on your interest in the wonderful game of Baseball AND your tolerance for a little schmaltzy kissing and crying.
Being the Renaissance man that I am, I can dig a good romance. Being a regular guy, I love baseball. While this movie isn't perfect, it's a great "compromise video choice" for couples at the video store. As tough as it seems to achieve a balance between the game sequences and the lovey-dovey stuff, director Sam Raimi acquits himself a lot better than most directors would have.
Aging pitcher Billy Chapel (Costner) is having one rotten day. He finds out that his beloved Detroit Tigers are being sold and that he'll consequently be traded at the end of the season. Then he learns that his girlfriend Jane (Preston) is moving abroad to improve her career. (The nerve.) Billy then has to pitch his final game of a losing season today, and he's basically in a sour mood.
Through the course of Billy's preparations and the game itself, the movie flashes back to earlier points in his career. While most of these deal with his romance with Jane, some are memories of distant friendships and unhappy decisions. Granted, the constant 'back-and-forth' gimmick may grow a bit tiresome, but by that point you'll either hate the movie or be completely caught up in it.
I fall into the latter category. Given Costner's recent track record, there's no real reason to expect this movie to be any good. But it actually is quite an entertaining movie, thanks mainly to the direction of Sam Raimi (The Evil Dead series, A Simple Plan). Whenever Dana Stevens' (City of Angels) script veers close to true corn, Raimi pulls up just short, flashes to the present, and presents some fantastic baseball sequences.
Costner plays Billy as melancholy and regretful, the very things that cause him so much trouble in his love life. Unfortunately (and as usual) Costner never loosens up at all; he's always stoic and mellow. He offers the typical "Don't get too close to me or I'll end up hurting you" role with his usual professionalism, but he'd seem more real if he smiled maybe twice. Kevin Costner suffers from "Movie Star Syndrome". When he plays a real character, like in Tin Cup, he shines. While she's no Oscar threat here, Kelly Preston easily holds her own as Jane, although her character is a bit underwritten for the female lead a romantic film.
What matters most in a movie like this is whether or not you care if these characters have a happy ending or not. There are several things that can ruin this for you: poor performances, a cliched and lazy script, or just an air of what I can only call 'fakeness'. (See Fools Rush In or Costner's own Message in a Bottle for examples of such romantic 'fakeness'.) For Love of the Game avoids these maladies (for the most part). If Costner and Preston don't always click as a couple, that's OK because she's really pretty! If the baseball sequences seem a tad forced or convenient, that's OK because it's a damn well-made baseball movie.
Maybe you just need to be a wimpy guy like me who likes happy endings and loves baseball, but let's put it this way: Male OR female, if you pick up the box at the video store, and it already looks pretty good to you, you'll like it.
In between colossal Hollywood flops, Costner does another baseball movie. While it might not compare with Bull Durham or Field of Dreams as a 'baseball movie', neither of those films can claim to have as romantic a heart as this one does. (Another example: If you found the previous sentence really sappy, you probably won't like this movie, you cold-hearted cynic you.)
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