Release date: 2007
Starring: Sean Astin, Powers Boothe, Rachael Leigh Cook
Sometimes a review goes outside in, like a great slider.
That’s how this movie works. If you get past the obvious plot devices early on,
what starts to emerge are the things that work in many sports movies:
overcoming long odds, discovering one’s self, redemption. All those elements
are here. And while they may not be put together in the most artful form, the
payoff is still resonant and meaningful. There is something about Iowa and
baseball and it is captured well here. Perhaps “The Field of Dreams” got there
and planted the seed first or most deeply. Perhaps it’s because the state,
itself, represents the heartland, kindness and “American values” in so many
ways. Maybe it’s corn, farmland and the base of our economy and trade these
commodities give us. All these elements provide grounding for what many Americans
would like this country to be seen as. Others would argue that this depiction isn’t
“the truth” of what America is. I tend to agree with the doubters – but only in
so far as a literal depiction is valuable. The problem with “the truth” is it’s
subjective. So the minute one person offers it, the next set of eyes is going
to change the parameters. Art, and narrative filmmaking as an art, has a great
way of getting beyond the literal truth to depict something bigger, more
resonant and metaphorical.
While The Final Season doesn’t offer “the truth” about
baseball, America or the events it is based on, it offers a certain, specific
truth that worked for me. I cared about the outcome. I felt for their triumphs
and losses. I was happy they won. And that’s no more a spoiler than telling you
the Titanic sunk.
