A LEAGUE OF THEIR OWN
A film review by Frank Maloney
Copyright 1992 Frank Maloney
A LEAGUE OF THEIR OWN is a film directed by Penny Marshall, from a screenplay by Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel. It stars Geena Davis, Lori Petty, Tom Hanks, Madonna, Rosie O'Donnell, and Megan Cavanaugh. Rated PG for mature humor.
A LEAGUE OF THEIR OWN is a funny, warm movie about a nearly forgotten moment in U.S. professional sports. It is also less than it could have been and backs off from having the kind of impact that Geena Davis' last movie, THELMA AND LOUISE, had. What's here is fine, but it is only the surface of what should be a great story, rich and reverberant beyond the limited significance of the story per se.
Penny Marshall, the director of BIG and AWAKENINGS (as well as JUMPIN' JACK FLASH, but that's a different story), backed off the larger meaning of the story in its latter part, when the story focuses on the relationship of the two sister-players, played by Davis and Lori Petty. The predictable story plays itself out with lots of emotion and schmaltz, like any self-respecting baseball picture, in the Big Game at the end. But up until the story shifted into this phase, Marshall had done a pretty good job of expanding the story to make some telling points about the sexism of the times, about racism (in a brief and memorable scene involving a black woman with a fierce pitching arm and a fiercer face, knowing that two barriers were keeping her out of pro ball), the personal price war exacts, and the bravery and strength of individuals in the face of oppressions of all kinds.
It is, however, the actors that really make LEAGUE the success that is. The secondary parts are filled by some primary talent. Jon Lovitz as the baseball scout steals every one of the few scenes he's in with his dry, tough wit. Megan Cavanaugh as the homely, downtrodden slugger is hilarious and not a little heartbreaking; this is the what the world does to such people, and you have to cheer them when they learn to fight back.
Madonna as "All-the-way" Mae Mordabito is completely charming; it's a made-to-order part, but what makes it and her good is not her "bosoms" (as in "What if my bosoms, you know, fall out?" To which Rosie O'Donnell replies "You think there ain't no man in America what ain't seen your bosoms?") is Mae's friendships first with Doris Murphy (O'Donnell), then with the player she teaches to read with the help of a dirty paperback; it's these friendships that make us take a interest in this ex-taxi dancer.
O'Donnell herself walks away with her scenes, leaving Madonna in the dust. O'Donnell is feisty, fierce, loyal, and full of energy as the third base player.
But, of course, the greatest scene stealer is Geena Davis who towers over the rest of the cast figuratively and literally. The woman who plays the older Dottie, by the way, looks like a very tall version of the Beav's mom, Barbara Billingsley, which is a little unnerving. Davis plays Dottie Hinson, the best player in the All-American Girls Baseball League, the only one who says she does not love baseball. But she's competitive and while she's a player she plays as the game is meant to be played. Davis is strong and straight; she looks right with dirt on her face, she looks right spitting tobacco. She's a believable leader, and her role in redeeming Jimmy Dugan, played by Tom Hanks, is entirely credible. And the scene with her husband (Bill Pullman) is nicely underplayed and breathlessly exciting. It is pleasurable to watch her every scene in this movie.
Lori Petty plays her sister Kit. Kit's the interesting one in terms of having problems to work through. Kit is jealous and feeling under the shadow of her big sister. She may come off as a little petulant, perhaps not entirely sympathetic. And whether she honestly earns her place in the sun at the end in an open question that movie posits without following up on.
Tom Hanks plays a washed up, self-pitying, alcoholic ex-great who is reduced to "managing" the Rockford Peaches. He's a mess and it's great fun to see Tom who has gotten entirely too much mileage out of being cute being very uncute here and still be engaging and very funny. He has a couple of scenes, including one consisting of him holding in his anger, which are well worth the price of your ticket. Hanks as Dugan is a charmer, but it is also a character that is built up and then dropped, much as Cavanaugh and Petty are, all in the interest of going for the laughs and the tears.
There is some sentiment in LEAGUE, scenes that made the tears stream down my face. The ending recreates the inauguration of the Women's Baseball exhibit at Cooperstown, an event that saw the beginnings of the film itself -- Marshall attended the ceremony and interviewed some of the living veterans of the AAGPGL before she decided to go with LEAGUE -- an event, I say, that may charm and move you or make you squirm depending on your tolerance for sentiment. But the older versions of the players are a fine and interesting group of women, and I found their presence refreshing and uplifting.
I recommend A LEAGUE OF THEIR OWN to you, recommend it enthusiastically and wholeheartedly. You can even play full price and get your money's worth. It is, I think, the best general-release, Hollywood movie I've seen this summer.
-- Frank Richard Aloysius Jude Maloney
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