Hardball (film)
| Hardball | |
|---|---|
Theatrical release poster
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| Directed by | Brian Robbins |
| Produced by | Brian Robbins Michael Tollin Kevin McCormick (Executive Producer) |
| Written by | Daniel Coyle (book) John Gatins |
| Starring |
Keanu Reeves Diane Lane D. B. Sweeney Michael B. Jordan |
| Music by | Mark Isham |
| Cinematography | Tom Richmond |
| Edited by | Ned Bastille |
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Production
company |
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| Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
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Release date
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September 14, 2001 |
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Running time
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106 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $21 million |
| Box office | $44.1 million |
Hardball is a 2001 American drama film directed by Brian Robbins. It stars Keanu Reeves, Diane Lane and D. B. Sweeney. The screenplay by John Gatins is based on the book Hardball: A Season in the Projects by Daniel Coyle. The original music score is composed by Mark Isham.
Conor O'Neill (Keanu Reeves) is a gambler who secretly bets $6,000 on his (dead) father's account and is now severely in debt with two bookies. In order to repay the debts, he is told by a corporate friend that he must coach a baseball team of troubled fifth grade kids from Chicago's ABLA housing projects in exchange for $500 each week, for ten weeks.
Worried only about getting his $500 check, Conor shows up at the baseball field to a rag tag bunch of trash-talking, street-wise, inner city kids who live in the projects, where people have to sit on the floor in their apartments to avoid stray bullets. Conor's efforts are hindered from the onset by the fact that he does not have nine kids to make up the team—one kid, having altered his birth certificate to be younger and another, "G-Baby" (DeWayne Warren), who is far too young to play. The kids tell Conor it is because their teacher, Elizabeth "Sister" Wilkes (Diane Lane), is making several boys finish a book report. Conor visits the teacher, but his life is threatened repeatedly by his bookies for not paying his gambling debts. He is visited by the mother of three boys that are allowed to play in exchange for his tutoring them.
Conor works to get the team to support each other and stop trash-talking each other's bad plays; but the team nevertheless, loses its first game 16–1, which fosters hostility between the players. Conor brings them together by buying them pizza (trading sports tickets for the pizza) and leads the team to win their second game 9–3. The team starts to come together as Conor tries to kindle a romance with Wilkes.
Conor risks everything and makes a $12,000 bet with a new bookie to cover the $12,000 debt he owes to the other bookies. His stress, already high from his gambling debts, runs higher at the baseball field because one of his players is pulled from playing after a competing coach questions the boy's age. Conor takes offense to the league president's threat to be removed, after he voices his objection to his team having to wear ratty T-shirts while the other teams have full uniforms. In protest, he announces it was his last game which draws dissension and resentment from his players.
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