On the money

Brad Pitt plays ball

Photos courtesy of Sony Pictures

Based on a true story, Moneyball is a biographical sports drama about Billy Beane (Brad Pitt), once a would-be baseball superstar who was stung by his failure to live up to expectations on the field.

Billy has turned his fiercely competitive nature to management, and heading into the 2002 season, he faces a dismal situation. His team Oakland A's have lost their star players to bigger clubs and the bigger salaries that go with them.

Driven to win, Billy decides to do things differently. He looks outside of baseball and hires brainy economist Peter Brand (Jonah Hill). Together they take on conventional wisdom, using computer driven statistical analysis long ignored by the baseball establishment.

Their conclusions lead them to hire players overlooked and dismissed by the rest of baseball for being too odd, too old, too injured or too much trouble, but who all have important skills that are generally undervalued. As Billy and Peter forge ahead, their new methods and roster of misfits rile the old guard, the media, the fans and their own field manager (Philip Seymour Hoffman), who refuses to cooperate.

Billy and Peter's experiment ultimately leads not only to a change in the way baseball is played, but to an outcome that leaves Billy with a new understanding about life itself.