Athletes often face a rough mid-life period as their skills diminish and their careers wind down, since their sport so defines who and what they are. This topic has great potential for drama and poignancy, yet few good films have been made on the subject. This movie has a beautifully sad central love story, with aging minor league ballplayer Billy Wyatt (Mark Harmon) remembering the (then) older woman who inspired him so many years before (Jodie Foster), and trying to come to terms with the route his career and life have taken. So, he returns to his hometown, connects with his high school best friend (Harold Ramis) and starts looking into his past for answers, while much of the film plays out in flashback, recounting his bittersweet teen years, when everything was ahead of him but his own goals and motivations were elusive. What makes the film watchable is the complexity of the central relationship, as the mature Billy realizes that the most important woman in his life arrived when he was too young to appreciate her.
The movie is quite beautiful to look at with its clean-scrubbed view of small town life and high school sports, and the characters are engaging to follow. This is not a great movie by any means. Like Billy Wyatt himself, this one just misses hitting the major leagues, but it IS enjoyable in a low key way, and the lack of interesting movies on this potentially interesting subject makes it a bit special.
