A Bunt Still Counts, Kiddo!
'You Gotta Believe' is genuine, fun, and confused. All spitball, little curve.
Dear Moviegoers,
It’s too bad that You Gotta Believe—based on the true “Cinderella”-esque story of a baseball team of uncoordinated kids who took a chance, were coached like mad, and made it to the Little League World Series in 2002—is so terribly unfocused. The movie has all of the ingredients for a true-blue poignant and very fun sports story and is at times quite emotionally powerful. After all, for a man like myself who grew up a wide-eyed baseball fanatic, it’s hard not to show some tears when a game comes down to a wing and a prayer. But unfortunately, that one element, the emotional, is what walked You Gotta Believe from having an exciting win.
Luke Wilson plays a baseball-fearing, family-loving kid at heart who, right out the gate of the movie’s charming opening, is diagnosed with brain cancer. Of course, this is all based on real events and real people (as the pre-end credits sequence will tug on) but the order in which it’s all portrayed and the tone to which everything has is off-kilter and confusing. That opening, where the disorganized team of misfit-ish young boys struggles to play their last game of a terrible season, was oh-so-cute with a hint of knockabout and wholesome comedy—even the coaches, the dedicated Luke Wilson and the work-obsessed Greg Kinnear, express a chummy “aww shucks” relationship that would’ve worked better with what I assumed would be a lighter movie.
Instead, You Gotta Believe throws some wild balls, by moving harshly from sports hijinx to family moments to health scares to tragedy and back again. It’s overwhelming and frankly too much of everything that a movie like this could have, but shouldn’t have all of.
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However loaded its bases get (apologies for the baseball puns and references) You Gotta Believe does two things consistently well: the technical and the true. As the team bonds over its sick coach, they play tournament game after game, winning and winning to the lyrics of the song “Rawhide,” producing a heck of a lovely toe-tapping and team-rallying montage. The movie tries to replicate this later on, but the near-perfect sequence stands tall with sincerity and creativity. The perspective goes from the players to the baseball itself from time to time, and song lyrics hang on the screen, bouncing along in order. Why couldn’t this be the whole film? Well, it kind of is.
For all of the confusion and the doubt, You Gotta Believe is a fine picture. Sure, I would’ve liked more of the kids training and playing and getting into scrapes. Sure, I would’ve enjoyed more scenes of tense baseball (there’s a great one at the climax) and maybe some more bonding over the game too. Is it all about Luke Wilson’s illness and his family, or is it about the team dynamic and how they overcame collective insurmountable odds? It’s a movie stuck in the mud but heavy with passion and striving for victory. An underdog by design. That’s well and good. And that’s just enough. 3/5
You Gotta Believe is now playing in theaters.