Costner Pitches A Winner
Game is Nearly Perfect

Kevin Costner (Bull Durham, Field of Dreams) and baseball movies go together like hot dogs and... well, baseball. They work a magic to become something greater than their individual parts. While some people feel Costner films should be avoided like whatever they make hot dogs out of (am I stretching this metaphor too thin?), there is no doubt that baseball makes them both more acceptable to the palette.

In For Love of the Game, Costner plays Billy Chapel, a forty year old major league pitcher in the twilight of his career. During the course of the final game of the season, he reflects on his life and his career.

Listening to Billy talk to himself as he stands on the pitcher's mound, the audience hears his desperation and his confidence. From the inner peace he finds to block out the distractions of Yankee Stadium to his decision to brush a batter away from the plate.

But this isn't just about one game, it's about Billy's career and his on-again/off-again relationship with Jane Aubrey (Kelly Preston). It's about beginnings and endings, coming together and coming apart. It's about the best game of a career at the worst time of a life.

Billy has his moments, but he also makes mistakes. Through it all, Costner makes us believe it. Costner shows us Billy's desperate need to find someone to share his victories with, but we also see a darker side. He is capable of great passion, but also great spite. We don't always love him, or understand his actions, but he is utterly human.

With stunning camera work and vision, director Sam Raimi turns Costner's duel into a thing of beauty. Every pitch becomes a breathtaking moment. The segues to Billy's past are seamless and never confusing.

Perhaps the best thing that can be said about For the Love of the Game is its devotion to baseball. Even in Billy's personal life, baseball is ever present. This is a baseball movie dealing with the soul of the game.

It's a film that speaks to the heart and makes us cry. Not because it's hopelessly romantic, but because it reminds us of our own endings. No matter what they may be. At the twilight of summer, as the regular season draws to a close, this movie reminds us why we love baseball.

MY RATING: 9 out of 10.

RATED: R
RUN TIME: 138 min.