Bennett Miller's Moneyball, featuring Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill, took in $6.8 million on opening night and netted $20.8 million over the course of its opening weekend. The film has received several positive reviews, including one from Rolling Stone by Peter Travers.
Travers gives the film 4.5 starts out of 5 and opens his critique by stating, "Moneyball is one of the best and most viscerally exciting films of the year." He goes on to state that the movie does focus on baseball without really spending too much time on the sports aspect, examining instead the intricacies and emotions associated with Beane's yearning for success.
Regarding the cast, Travers has only praise for Pitt, who plays Oakland A's general manager Billy Beane, and Hill, who plays stats cruncher Peter Brand. Travers says of the lead actor, "Pitt's golden-boy luster fits Beane, but the actor goes deeper...Pitt nails every nuance, including Beane's complex relationship with the two people who care about him the most: his ex-wife (Robin Wright) and their daughter (Kerris Dorsey)."
Travers concludes his review with this: "The GM (referring to Beane) still has no World Series victory to his credit, and sabermetrics are now so prevalent that Beane can't claim an edge. But Moneyball left me ready to cheer." That's good news coming from a man who finds baseball very boring, which Travers openly admits to at the very beginning of his critique.
Moneyball seems to have won Rolling Stone over. The movie is currently playing in theaters and has something for both baseball-loving and baseball-neutral moviegoers. Check it out: you may find yourself like Travers, who thoroughly enjoyed the movie after initially expecting not to at all.