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A LEAGUE OF THEIR OWN
On paper, 1992's A League of their Own, the story of the first female professional baseball team, must have seemed like a great idea, but the execution was definitely hit and miss, due to Penny Marshall's accustomed self-indulgent direction, an overly padded screenplay and some problematic casting and performances.
The second World War has begun and millions of men are being shipped overseas, including professional athletes, so a candy mogul (Garry Marshall) decides to start the first professional all-girls' baseball team. The primary focus of the story is on a pair of sisters who are drafted for the league: Dottie (Geena Davis) is a talented catcher and hitter, but doesn't really have the passion; her sister Kit (Lori Petty) definitely has the passion but, of course, doesn't have the talent and how the competition between them becomes even more heated when Kit is traded to a different team. Also at the center of the story is Jimmy Dugan (Tom Hanks) an alcoholic ex-player who has been given a last chance at remaining in the game by coaching these women.
Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandell are a proven commodity as screenwriters (Splash) but they might have bitten off a little more than they can chew here. The story starts off with some strong feminist leanings commenting on how these women were defying their expected place in society but it then veers off in unexpected directions, producing several mini-melodramas that could have made separate movies by themselves, but to try and incorporate all into a single movie resulted in a story that provides sporadic entertainment, but goes on and on and on and on...
Penny Marshall proved her skill as a director with Big and Awakenings but she got a little full of herself here, mounting a story that is interesting but is told at such a leisurely pace that we definitely find ourselves looking at our watches, or at least wishing things would move along.
The performances are hit and miss too...Geena Davis almost seems to be phoning it in as Dottie, but Lori Petty is terrific as Kit, providing a three-dimensional character we really come to care about, as does Hanks, who nails the has been wrestling with a comeback he's not sure he really wants. The role of Dugan seems to have been written with an older actor in mind, but Hanks commits to it and makes it work. The stunt casting of Madonna was a problem for me as well...Madonna was the biggest music star on the planet in '92 and her casting here just seems to be an attempt to capitalize on that, her character here just seems to be Madonna with a different name in a different time. She and Rosie McDonnell came off as lovers here (I think they were having an affair at the time), but it was pointless to this story.
The film is told in flashback and during the interminable final scene, we see Davis, in some really bad old age makeup, reuniting with the ladies in present time, where they're all grandmothers now, but most of the the other team members are played by older actresses. If they'e going to put Davis in bad old age makeup, why not do the same with the rest of the ladies that we have been watching for the duration of the film instead of hiring more actresses?
The film is mounted with care...there is some stunning cinematography and settings and costumes are nicely detailed and period-appropriate, but Marshall just needs to be reined in as a director, though Hanks and Petty fans should definitely check it out, but this was one film that, for me, did not live up to its reputation.
On paper, 1992's A League of their Own, the story of the first female professional baseball team, must have seemed like a great idea, but the execution was definitely hit and miss, due to Penny Marshall's accustomed self-indulgent direction, an overly padded screenplay and some problematic casting and performances.
The second World War has begun and millions of men are being shipped overseas, including professional athletes, so a candy mogul (Garry Marshall) decides to start the first professional all-girls' baseball team. The primary focus of the story is on a pair of sisters who are drafted for the league: Dottie (Geena Davis) is a talented catcher and hitter, but doesn't really have the passion; her sister Kit (Lori Petty) definitely has the passion but, of course, doesn't have the talent and how the competition between them becomes even more heated when Kit is traded to a different team. Also at the center of the story is Jimmy Dugan (Tom Hanks) an alcoholic ex-player who has been given a last chance at remaining in the game by coaching these women.
Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandell are a proven commodity as screenwriters (Splash) but they might have bitten off a little more than they can chew here. The story starts off with some strong feminist leanings commenting on how these women were defying their expected place in society but it then veers off in unexpected directions, producing several mini-melodramas that could have made separate movies by themselves, but to try and incorporate all into a single movie resulted in a story that provides sporadic entertainment, but goes on and on and on and on...
Penny Marshall proved her skill as a director with Big and Awakenings but she got a little full of herself here, mounting a story that is interesting but is told at such a leisurely pace that we definitely find ourselves looking at our watches, or at least wishing things would move along.
The performances are hit and miss too...Geena Davis almost seems to be phoning it in as Dottie, but Lori Petty is terrific as Kit, providing a three-dimensional character we really come to care about, as does Hanks, who nails the has been wrestling with a comeback he's not sure he really wants. The role of Dugan seems to have been written with an older actor in mind, but Hanks commits to it and makes it work. The stunt casting of Madonna was a problem for me as well...Madonna was the biggest music star on the planet in '92 and her casting here just seems to be an attempt to capitalize on that, her character here just seems to be Madonna with a different name in a different time. She and Rosie McDonnell came off as lovers here (I think they were having an affair at the time), but it was pointless to this story.
The film is told in flashback and during the interminable final scene, we see Davis, in some really bad old age makeup, reuniting with the ladies in present time, where they're all grandmothers now, but most of the the other team members are played by older actresses. If they'e going to put Davis in bad old age makeup, why not do the same with the rest of the ladies that we have been watching for the duration of the film instead of hiring more actresses?
The film is mounted with care...there is some stunning cinematography and settings and costumes are nicely detailed and period-appropriate, but Marshall just needs to be reined in as a director, though Hanks and Petty fans should definitely check it out, but this was one film that, for me, did not live up to its reputation.