Date: Fri 01-Oct-1999

Publication: Bee

Author: MELISS

Quick Words:

Costner-Preston-Raimi-Playing

Full Text:

NOW PLAYING: Costner's Latest Baseball Outing Tries, But It's No "Field Of

Dreams"

By Trey Paul Alexander III

Where were you when President Kennedy was shot? Almost everyone who was alive

at the time will tell you they can remember with pinpoint accuracy where they

were. Where were you when the space shuttle Challenger exploded? I was in high

school in Boca Raton, Fla., on that horrible, surreal day. Where were you when

David Cone pitched a perfect game this summer? Yeah, yeah, it pales in

comparison with the previous two events, but humor me. I was at a pleasant,

mid-afternoon cookout when I was suddenly drawn indoors to watch the last two

innings of that magnetic moment at Yankee Stadium. The waning minutes of that

game were full of the type of dramatic situations one hopes for when watching

a good Hollywood concoction, the kind Kevin Costner and company strive for in

his newest, For Love of the Game.

In this, his third trip to the mound after successful outings in Bull Durham

and Field of Dreams (considered by many to be the best baseball flick ever),

Costner takes on the role of Detroit Tigers hurler Billy Chapel, a baseball

lifer who has spent his entire professional existence with one team, his

hometown team, and now, in the twilight of his career, at 40 years of age, is

at a crossroads. Once an elite pitcher on a championship club, Chapel is now

warring against personal mediocrity on a team mired in the basement of its

division. His heart is heavy with the news that his team's loyal owner (Brian

Cox) has just sold the club, he is about to be traded to the Giants, and his

girlfriend, Jane (Kelly Preston), is leaving him for a job in London. So, when

he takes the mound at Yankee Stadium, perhaps for one last hurrah in a Tigers

uniform, he finds himself staring out at a future that is more uncertain than

it has ever been for this once-heralded star.

For Love of the Game frames its tale with Chapel's diamond battle against the

vaunted Yankees, but flashes back upon key moments from his last five years

with Jane. As the aging fastballer strives for a perfect game in a hostile

stadium, we witness all-too-flawed moments in a fractured, yet promising

relationship.

As directed by Sam Raimi, the talented horror genre specialist ( Darkman, the

Evil Dead series) who surprised fans and critics alike with his stylistically

subdued yet dramatically charged moral fable A Simple Plan , this baseball

film gets a jolt from some of Raimi's able technical maneuvering, such as his

proficient handling of the film's tricky flashback structure, and his

innovative insights into life on the mound (Chapel's attempts to "tune out"

the hostile New York crowd and focus only on his catcher and the opposing

batter are particularly well staged). But overall, the sports scenes fall a

bit flat. One too many "we're all here for you" speeches and rah-rah game

moments take their toll, plus the film could have used another high-profile

co-star during these game sequences. Costner has no one of note to play

against in these moments. A co-star of charged personality (think Cuba Gooding

Jr opposite Tom Cruise in Jerry Maguire ) could have helped bring these scenes

to more vibrant life.

On the plus side, Raimi handles the relationship aspect of the film extremely

well and gets good performances out of Costner and Preston. The twists and

turns of Chapel's connection with Jane prove more interesting than the sports

angle of the movie, and the introduction of young, talented Jena Malone about

halfway into the picture also helps. In fact, Raimi, always known more for

stylistic aplomb, proves here he is a master storyteller, able to reach far

more emotional chords than previously believed. It's just too bad that For

Love of the Game, rated PG-13 for strong language and some suggestiveness,

couldn't quite measure up on the field of play.