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For Love of the Game Customer Reviews (37 - 39 of 41 Reviews)

"Clear the mechanism."
My son, a former college pitcher, absolutely adored this film--not because of the overall story, but because of the head games pitchers play on the mound. And to its credit, FOR LOVE OF THE GAME vividly depicts a day out on the hill for a major league pitcher at the twilight of his career, Detroit Tiger ace Billy Chapel (Kevin Costner). My son instantly identified with Chapel's talking to himself between pitches, trying to get inside the head of the batter (What's he expecting? Fastball or breaking ball?), hoping that his next pitch will throw the batter off balance. And finally, Chapel's ability to completely shut out all noise and distractions ("Clear the mechanism," he says to himself.) was very effective.

And those are the highlights of the movie. Unfortunately, FOR LOVE OF THE GAME is a compilation of flashbacks centering around a contrived love story that has been rehashed and recycled thousands of times. Director Sam Raimi gives us a story about the on-again/off-again relationship between Chapel and Jane Aubrey (Kelly Preston), a magazine exec. Chapel is unwilling to make a commitment, while Jane's pessimistic insecurity about the relationship becomes downright annoying. Costner is so wooden in these scenes he appears to be going through the motions, while Preston whines and pines like a high school sophomore. The final scene between the two of them, in the airport, is uncomfortable to watch.

John C. Reilly turns in an admirable performance as grisly veteran catcher Gus Sinski, and the soothing voice of Hall of Fame broadcaster Vin Scully lends wonderful credibility to the drama as Chapel makes a bid to pitch a perfect game. I only wish FOR LOVE OF THE GAME had confined itself to the action on the mound; there wasn't much action going on anywhere else.
--D. Mikels

Near-Perfect Pitch
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, Holy Man). 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.

Not Bull Durham or Field of Dreams
If you're expecting to see another heart stirring Field of Dreams or hilarious Bull Durham performance out of Kevin Costner, then don't watch this film. The movie is less a baseball movie than a relationship movie, and not a very interesting one at that. Although the movie has a few interesting moments, such as a compelling scene where Costner "gets in the zone" to pitch and turns off the crowd noise around him, most of the movie was pure oversentimental drivel.

As I recall, I fast forwarded through about the last 30 minutes of the DVD, hoping, praying that the film would somehow redeem itself with something interesting to watch. Save yourself the time on this stinker: it didn't improve...

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