In the 1970s, New York Mets pitcher Tug McGraw made “Ya Gotta Believe” the catch phrase adopted by the fans as the Mets went on a historic run to end the 1973 season. It is an apt title for this telling of another scrappy, fact-based come-from-behind baseball story, this one a group of Fort Worth Little Leaguers who improbably made their way to the Little League World Series in 2002. The movie is sincerely made, but it jerks back and forth in tone, with thin characterizations and way too many on-the-nose aphorisms about teamwork and the importance of being present for each other.
“The Sandlot” is clearly the classic baseball flick that “You Gotta Believe” aspires to replicate, even including that film’s Patrick Renna in the cast. It begins with triumphant horns on the soundtrack and an iconic images of childhood sports nostalgia: A young pitcher’s fingers on the seams of a baseball, a sun flare behind him and cheers from the stands. Psych! A minute later it turns into farce, with missed catches, a hitter too busy flirting with a teammate’s sister to see the pitch coming at him, and a foul ball smashing into the popcorn machine. The scoreboard shows 9-0. Coach Jon Kelly (Greg Kinnear) is filling out paperwork for his law office in the dugout. His best friend and co-coach Bobby Ratliff (Luke Wilson) reminds him that they were going to be the team’s Yogi Berra and Sparky Anderson. Both men have sons on the team. Jon is just glad their last game of the season is over. They may have the worst record in the league, but at least they’re done.
But it turns out, there is more ahead. Kliff (Renna) asks Jon to coach the all-star team, and by that he means Jon’s bottom-of-the-league Westside team because none of the other teams want to participate. If they don’t send a team to the state qualifiers for the Little League World Series, they will lose their sponsorships. He says no. But then the unthinkable happens when Bobby is diagnosed with brain cancer. Jon agrees to coach the no-star all-star team because it means so much to Bobby and because the devastating news reminds him that life is short and he does not want to be remembered only as the guy who did corporate law and followed the rules. With only 10 days to get ready for the first game, Jon brings in a former drill sergeant (Lew Temple) to work on their conditioning and a former pro player (Martin Roach) to help with pitching. Somehow, they win their first qualifying game, and, thanks to a star opposing pitcher quitting his team, they make it to the finals in Pennsylvania. From there, it’s just about believing.
Director Ty Roberts, his co-screenwriter Lane Garrison, and star Luke Wilson, all from Texas, collaborated on the fact-based underdog sports story “12 Mighty Orphans.” Like that film, “You Gotta Believe” shows a deep love of sports and of the people who play and coach, not to achieve any particular record but to show all who participate the best they can be and the best they can bring out in each other. The fresh-faced kids on the team are appealing and Kinnear and Wilson play off each other and the young actors well. But the movie has too many camera tricks and it tries to be too many things at once, a scrappy underdog sports story, an existential awakening for Jon, and a story about a family facing a terminal illness of a beloved parent. The dialogue for the team relies too heavily on “cute” schoolyard insults (many having to do with bodily functions) and “cute” ignorance (really, 11-year-olds asking, “What are taxes?” “What is a stripper?”). And yet somehow in 2002 they all sing the theme song from a 1960s television series?
It’s not much better when the adults get to talk. The always-great Sarah Gadon and Molly Parker are relegated to endlessly patient and supportive wife roles. Every ten minutes or so, Jon and Bobby have to spout pep-talk cliches that land somewhere between Yoda and a fortune cookie. “You can’t always count on winning, but you can always count on each other.” “The most important thing I’ve got is what I give.”
This movie has different parts that fight each other to connect to the audience—the team learning to work together, Jon learning that his job kept him from what really mattered, Bobby’s terminal diagnosis, and his young sons trying to find a way to believe that he can survive, maybe even that winning might help. Parents with young children who hope this is a sweet and inspiring film about an underdog Little League team will find that there is too little baseball and too much about a family confronting a devastating loss. Those who are more interested in the story of the adults will find there is too much baseball. Steee-rike.
