Columbia Pictures’ Moneyball is based on the true story of Billy Beane (Brad Pitt) – once a would-be baseball superstar who, stung by the failure to live up to expectations on the field, turned his fiercely competitive nature to management. Heading into the 2002 season, Billy faces a dismal situation: his small-market Oakland A’s have lost their star players (again) to big market clubs (and their enormous salaries) and is left to rebuild his team and compete with a third of their payroll. Driven to win, Billy takes on the system by challenging the fundamental tenants of the game. He looks outside of baseball, to the dismissed theories of Bill James, and hires Peter Brand (Jonah Hill), a brainy, number-crunching, Yale-educated economist. Together they take on conventional wisdom with a willingness to reexamine everything and armed with computer driven statistical analysis long ignored by the baseball establishment. They reach imagination-defying conclusions and go after 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 key skills that are universally undervalued. As Billy and Peter forge forward, 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. Ultimately this experiment will lead not only to a change in the way the game is played, but to an outcome that would leave Billy with a new understanding that transcends the game and delivers him to a new place.

Very few will catch this film because it is about baseball. Maybe hardly anyone at all as most Singaporeans would attest, for it is a sport that is rarely seen, let alone played here. To us, it is a complicated game involving loads of running, swinging, and catching. For the folks in America, it's one of their most well-loved sports. So for them, the sport is the pull itself, with the added visual bonus of seeing Brad Pitt acting cool. For us, it is Pitt himself who draws us into the alien world of baseball, taking us through the mechanics of the sport with nonchalant ease.

Pitt is more than just a handsome tour guide, though we would have been contented with that. He plays Billy Beane, the general manager of Oakland A, who with his overweight, Yale-educated sidekick, Peter Brand (Jonah Hill), revolutionize the game with their use of statistical analyses to get potentially effective players at the cheapest of prices. Based on a true story, Beane created a team of what seemed like lazy misfits, who initially flopped, but later went on an astonishing record-breaking run with twenty consecutive wins. This is the stuff of legend, and it is tempting for filmmakers to make the next "inspirational sport movie" with Moneyball.

However, for better or worse, Moneyball defies the tradition of such a genre that produced films like Rocky (1976), Chariots of Fire (1981), Invictus (2009), and most recently, Warrior (2011). Screenwriters Steven Zaillian (Schindler's List, 1993; Gangs of New York, 2002), and Aaron Sorkin (The Social Network, 2010; The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, 2011) forgo the epic, uplifting climax for a more in-depth look at the micro-level human drama behind-the-scenes. There is the requisite sequence of glorious triumph against the odds, which is by the way deftly executed, but it is downplayed in the larger scheme of things.

The best parts of the film involve the interactions between Beane and Brand, and their interactions with the people involved with Oakland A, from the scouts to the players. Okay, that's almost the entire film. Pitt gives a performance that reminds us of his hilarious role in the Coens' Burn After Reading (2008), but it is nowhere as insane. In my opinion, Pitt has given a more memorable performance than fellow pal George Clooney of The Descendants (2011). The smart dialogue, quick exchange of glances, and awkward silences are perfectly captured. One outstanding example  sees Beane picking three replacement players for his new team to the dismay of his fellow scouts, and using a nervous-looking Brand as a human calculator.

Moneyball also shows director Bennett Miller to be a talent to be reckoned with. He previously directed the great Philip Seymour Hoffman to an Oscar win in Capote (2005). Speaking of which, Hoffman only has a small role here, which is quite a pity. Despite some excellent editing (of film and sound), Moneyball still feels lengthy. Perhaps there is too much micro-drama, and few truly inspiring moments. Still, this film is one to catch, and although it has been nominated for six Oscars, I suspect it will leave the glittering ceremony empty-handed.