Sports films come in all flavors. Take Luca Guadagnino “Challengers”, which draws an elegant and frantic parallel Between the athletes involved in the central love triangle of its history and their passionate love for the tennis game. Guadagnino understands how to animate a drama that thrives on this complex dynamic, resulting in a sporting film that feels fresh and exciting. On the other hand, we have intensely dramatic sporting films like “The Iron Claw”, which Dramatizes the real tragedy of the Von Erich family While making prospering as a cinematographic experience. Then there are stories that do not explore the nuances of a sport or do not dive too deeply in the drama, but always constitute a decent and pleasant genre film, although it is easy to neglect. This brings us to “Hardball” by Brian Robbins, a film on a morally gray protagonist who finds it difficult to find salvation by drawing a baseball team full of matters.

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In “Hardball”, Keanu Reeves embodies Conor O’Neill, a player / scalper of unscrupulous tickets whose debt hastened to the point of legal concern. When O’Neill has nothing more to bet, he puts his eyes on the story of his deceased father – a compulsive decision which inevitably leads to uncompromising consequences. While such circumstances are supposed to transmit tragic despair that feeds uncontrolled games of chance (something explored with great complexity in better films like “California split” or “not cut”), “hardball” still does not use our emotions. Even with Reeves pouring his heart into the desperate compulsivity of O’Neill, the script does not sufficiently transmit this urgency to worry about it.

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But “Hardball” is not all disappointing of mediocrity. Although it can lack a certain depth, it is always a sporting drama which is clearly supposed to be inspiring. After all, the film is vaguely based on “Hardball: A Season in the Projects” by Daniel Coyle, which examines the challenges facing a Little League baseball team of a Chicago housing project, as well as the harshly won triumph of those who push themselves to the limits. In this spirit, let’s take a closer look at the film.

In addition to being one of the less known films of Reeves, “Hardball” also presents a young Michael B. Jordan, who plays Jamal, one of the oldest players of the school baseball team. It was not the first role of actor of Jordan (as he had played briefly in episodes of “Cosby” and “The Sopranos” before that), but it was a successful actor like Reeves, who was freshly released The explosive success of “The Matrix”. Although Jordan’s Jamal is not at the forefront of the film, the actor was going to make a name for a sporty dramatic genre with “Creed” by Ryan coogler more than a decade later. Jordan also played in the aftermath of this film acclaimed by criticism, with The elegant and inspired beginnings of the anime “Creed III” marking the beginnings of director (impressive) of Jordan.

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Although Jordan and Reeves perform well in “Hardball”, the confused approach to the history of heavier subjects like dependence, where people often use adrenaline as “drugs” of choice, hurts what could have been a great history with high issues. He also does not know what type of film he wants to be, because the downside culminating is not a championship match or a personal crisis that the O’Neill experiences of Reeves. Instead, it is a brilliant brutal and uncomfortable violence that does not belong to the world of the “hard ball”. The film’s treatment of this moment only underlines the tonal disparity between the incident and the global themes of history.

What Really Sorts like a sore thumb, however, is O’Neill himself, whose meat circumstances are transmitted in tones of random behavior which are not consistent enough to make an impression. One minute, he is anxiously casual and neck in the debt, and in the other, he is suddenly free of his paralyzing dependence and devotes himself to being an honest coach. The incitement incident which is supposed to trigger this significant transformation has passed over in silence, and before we know it, O’Neill is applauded for making the bare minimum to ensure that the children of his team are safe.

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Even when the challenges of “hardball” are raised, the behavior of O’Neill and everything that is happening around him sounds simply inauthentic. It is almost as if his heart was not there, even if the film wants us to desperately believe the opposite.