You Gotta Believe

You-Gotta-Believe
You Gotta Believe

During the last stretch of the 1973 season, New York Mets pitcher Tug McGraw made “You Gotta Believe” the battle cry of the fans who supported the Mets through a remarkable series of games. It is an appropriate title for this chronicle of another feisty, documentary-inspired, baseball never-say-die tale, this one recounting how in 2002 a group of Fort Worth Little Leaguers made it to the Little League World Series against all odds. For the most part, the film is well executed, however, it contains a lot of tonal whiplash, poor development of characters, and a surplus of cliched platitudes on the theme of working together and being there for each other.

The American classic of a summer baseball movie that “You Gotta Believe” aims to recreate is none other than “The Sandlot” which even features Patrick Renna from that original film. The movie begins finely, with a striking image and sound of young kids playing baseball complemented by triumphant horns in the background. Now, it shows young kids with fingers on the seams of a baseball who are basking in the brightness of the sun while already getting cheers from the crowd. Psych! It only takes a minute for the action to degenerate into comedy with caught fly balls, late batters distracted by harmless flirting with the pitcher’s sister, and too many popcorns flying around due to a plated ball breakage. The game stats are too depressing, the scoreboard reads 9:0. It’s Gregg Kinnear’s character Jon Kelly who uses the dugout as an office and does some paperwork for the law firm he works for. And his buddy and co-coach Bobby Ratliff again reminded him that both the gentlemen were going to impersonate Yogi Berra and Sparky Anderson for that night. They both have sons who play in the SB Pride. Jon is just relieved that it’s not going to get worse this season. They may finish the worst in the league but it is at least finished.

However, this is only the beginning. Kliff (Reena) wants Jon to be the coach of the all-star team which in his case means his almost bottom-of-the-table westside team as no other team is ready to take the responsibility. In case they fail to send a team to the state qualifier of the Little League World Series, they shall lose their sponsorships. He is quite resistant and says no. However, the unexpected happens when Bobby is found with brain cancer. The reality is that Jon takes up the duty of coaching the no-star all-star team because it means a lot to Bobby and the awful news of Bobby’s cancer reminds him of the reality that life is too short to care about having a history only as a corporate lawman who abided by the law. The first match was only 10 days away and to prepare for it, Jon hired a former drill sergeant (Lew Temple) for their conditioning and an ex-professional player (Martin Roach) as their pitching coach. In an unexpected turn of events, they won their first qualifying match and because a star pitcher from the opposing side resigned, they reached the finals in Pennsylvania. From there it is all about faith.

Texas natives Director Ty Roberts, co-screenwriter Lane Garrison, and star Luke Wilson, created the true underdog sports drama “12 Mighty Orphans” together. And just like that film, Y’all Gotta Believe does not only talk about a love for the game both the players and coaches of the game without having to focus on breaking records but rather helping and giving their absolute dedication to all those involved and aiming to become their best version and to help others be the best possibly. The cast of young players is good looking and Kinnear together with Wilson works nicely interplaying with the young cast. And then there are too many camera gimmicks and the feeling that the movie wants to be a bit of everything a tough sports movie about an underdog, the journey of Jon around self-discovery, and a woman whose family is devastated with cancer of a parent. The kids in the film overuse ‘cute’ schoolyard name-calling insults (most are body function related) and ‘cute’ naiveté (like 11-year-olds asking ‘What are taxes?’, ‘What is a stripper’. And yet somehow in 2002, you have all of them singing the tune of a 1960’s television show?

Sarah Gadon and Molly Parker are always cast in the same stereotypical and one-dimensional female roles as the wives who remain in the background and offer their support. Interspersed every now and then with the scenes are Jon and Bobby who are forced to deliver rather boring attempts at motivational questions that sound more like a cross between the wise Yoda and a fortune cookie. “You can’t always count on the end, but you can always count on each other.” “The most important thing I’ve got is what I give.”

In fact, this particular movie has several sub-plots that are not congruent with each other in their attempt to appeal to the audience the team learning how to cooperate with each other, the man who put his work before everything else, in this case, Jon, the plot involving Bobby who learns that he has been diagnosed with an advance stage of cancer and even the young kids of Bobby trying to hold on to the hope of their father’s survival, perhaps through winning. The parents with kids in their teenage appreciate this movie and hope it will be an emotional and motivational story of an underdog’s portrayal in a Little League, much to the viewers’ dismay, there is hardly any baseball and so much focus on a family coping with emotional and physical painful loss. However, those who pay more attention to the plot of the elder characters will discover that they have shown quite a lot of baseball which would turn out to be unnecessary. Steee-rike.

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