HARDBALL --------
Conor O'Neill (Keanu Reeves) is a drunk up to his neck in gambling debts. When he turns to investment banker buddy Jimmy Fleming (Mike McGlone, "The Brothers McMullen") for yet another loan, Jimmy pitches him a deal - coach a Cabrini Green Little League team to fulfill Jimmy's corporate pledge and he'll pay Conor $500 a week. Conor reluctantly agrees and is surprised by his own feelings for the kids he comes to know in "Hardball."
Screenwriter John Gatins ("Summer Catch," "Ready to Rumble") Hollywoodizes Daniel Coyle's book "Hardball: A Season in the Projects" and serves up an uneven "The Bad News Bears" hybrid. Conor serves more as symbolic outside masculine interest than effective sports coach and is forced to sway wildly to the plot's mechanics, turning his concern for the kids and romantic interest in their teacher Elizabeth Wilkes (Diane Lane) off and on like a faucet.
Conor's a lowlife who exists by gambling on and scalping tickets to local sporting events with his best friend Ticky Tobin (John Hawkes, "The Perfect Storm"). He uses his deceased dad's betting account to place another bet when his own account's being called in and loses again. Now he's being hunted
by two bookies, yet uses Ticky to introduce him to a third.
When he finds himself the coach of the Kekambas, eight ten year olds and an underage mascot G-Baby (DeWayne Warren), Conor needs to make a deal with Miss Wilkes and a suspicious mom to help Kofi Evans (Michael Perkins) deliver a book report in order to have enough kids to play. Then Conor finds out his responsibilities also include getting his kids home safely after he callously sends asthmatic Jefferson (Julian Griffith) home after dark and the poor kid winds up in the hospital, beaten up by the ever present drug dealers and gang members outside his home. Although Conor lives in a rundown, inner city apartment, his eyes are opened to the violence of daily life in Chicago's projects. He begins to take a real interest in the kids whose sole joy is found on the baseball field.
Ironically, the Keanu Reeves who's accused of only being able to deliver 'whoas' and 'dudes' is more believable in roles such as the investment banker he (unbelievably) tries to pass himself off as here than the lowlife he's cast as. Reeves has charm to spare with the kids and Lane but fails to convince in his drinking, gambling scenes. The guy just exudes too much inner peace to ever seem truly desperate. Diane Lane is solid as the inner city teacher who takes an interest in the unlikely guy who's fired up her students.
The kids, all but two making their film debuts, are all naturals, with young DeWayne Warren a standout as the crowd pleasing G-Baby. Also good is A. Delon
Ellis, Jr. as the silent star pitcher who needs the rhythm of The Notorious B.I.G.'s 'Big Poppa' rap on his walkman in order to win. D.B. Sweeney wears the false bravado and shifty eyes of a competing coach in the game for himself
rather than his team.
"Hardball" is directed by Brian Robbins ("Varsity Blues") in a straightforward manner, although he yanks his lead too abruptly through emotional shifts (Conor's boorish behavior towards Elizabeth on their first date and later abandonment of his team just don't wash as handled here). The PG-13 rated film has been criticized for the bad language spouting from the mouths of its kids, but it would seem unnatural for these kids to speak otherwise.
Admirably, "Hardball" avoids schmarm and offers numerous crowd-pleasing moments, but it only delivers a base hit instead of hitting one out of the park.
C+
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