THE AISLE SEAT - "FOR LOVE OF THE GAME"
by Mike McGranaghan
When did Kevin Costner become the movies' leading purveyor of mush? Earlier this year, I slogged through the mediocre melodramatics of Message in a Bottle, and now I have suffered For Love of the Game, an even more detestable piece of big screen soap operatics. Costner takes a lot of heat for Waterworld and The Postman, but this is the kind of hackneyed pabulum for which he truly deserves to be razzed.
The star plays Billy Chapel, a pitcher for the Detroit Tigers. At the beginning of the film, he waits impatiently in a hotel room for his girlfriend Jane (Kelly Preston), with whom he's had a fight. She doesn't show up, much to his dismay. Charging ahead, he takes the mound to pitch a game against the New York Yankees. Standing there, he flashes back to important moments in his relationship with Jane from the time they met to their final meeting. By the late innings, he realizes that he is very close to pitching a "perfect game." This is where the tension is supposed to build: Will he get his perfect game? Will Jane come back to him?
As all this takes place, Jane gets stranded in an airport and wanders over to the bar, where - surprise, surprise - everyone is watching the ball game (in one of the film's most incomprehensible elements, we keep getting scenes involving the obnoxious drunk sitting beside Jane, even after she has long left the bar).
For Love of the Game wants to take its place alongside other romantic/sports hybrids like Bull Durham (which also had Costner on a diamond) and Jerry Maguire. It might have ranked with those pictures had it been any good. However, the screenplay is filled with familiar melodrama that is played out in the most cornball of ways. For example, Jane rushes Billy to the hospital after he cuts his hand on a table saw. The place is crowded and none of the doctors is paying attention to him. So Jane stands in the middle of the ER and screams, "Is this not America?! Is baseball not the national pasttime?!" The scene is a laughably bad combination of heavy-handed drama, moronic dialogue, and bad acting. Far too many of the film's scenes are similar. There's nothing compelling because so much of it is overwrought, and the characters are annoying (he's a self-absorbed jerk; she's a flake).
Another annoyance is the way Chapel stands on the mound and talks to himself throughout the movie. I suppose this is meant to show us the inner dialogue he's having with himself. Especially ridiculous is the way he seriously intones "Clear the mechanism!" every time he wants to drown out the roar of the crowd (I was reminded of Bela Lugosi's mantra "Pull the string!" from Ed Wood's Glen or Glenda every time Costner did this).
I hope I am conveying how poor this movie is. Or maybe it sounds so-bad-it's-good. I hope not because, quite honestly, I can't remember a recent movie that left me as bored as For Love of the Game did. At 2 1/4 hours, the film is way too long and the pace really drags. I am stunned that this is the work of director Sam Raimi, whose pictures (ranging from The Evil Dead to A Simple Plan) are typically fast-moving and creative. Obviously, he wants to open the door to a career as a more mainstream filmmaker, but why sacrifice the very things that have made his work distinguishable? Only in the late innings of the game does Raimi spark any interest. He and ace cinematographer John Bailey at least compose some interesting shots that make you feel like you are in the center of the field.
For Love of the Game is quite a bad movie. Why Costner feels the need to repeatedly make such claptrap eludes me. I used to enjoy his movies but this one is painfully dull. I felt a sense of relief when it was finally over. I thought to myself, It's done now. You can go home. Clear the mechanism.
(
1/2 out of four)
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