Movie Review of “Moneyball”

Like most people who read Michael Lewis’ “Moneyball”, when I heard that a movie was in production, I was flummoxed. How could you possibly turn a book that did not have a traditional story arc, and that focused more on interesting details day-by-day of the A’s 2002 season, into a feature film? The result was a very pleasant surprise. Before I get into too much detail, to answer the main question of those who have read the book and have not seen the movie: they are very different. It needed to be that way. This is not a documentary, it is a Hollywood film. The good news here is it’s one of the best movies I have seen all year. Moneyball begins with the 2001 ALDS, where the A’s lost a best-of-five series against the the wealthy New York Yankees (2001 being the year everyone rooted for the Yankees following September 11th). Many viewed this as a “last chance” for Oakland as they would be unable to resign Jason Isringhausen, Jason Giambi ...