Title: A League of Their Own
Release Date: 1992
Director: Penny Marshall
Summary/Review:
I can scratch this off the list of movies I never got around to seeing. This highly-fictionalized movie tells the story of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League started during World War II. It’s a generally entertaining account of an overlooked time in sports history but a few things bug me about. First, there are a lot of broad comedy devices that seems to undermine the professional aspirations of women athletes by just making them look to silly. Second, the movie feels bloated with the framing device about the reunion at Cooperstown. I guess I would’ve found it more interesting if they’d tied it more to actual alumni of the AGPBL rather than having older actors play older fictional versions of the fictional characters. Finally, I thought Lori Petty played her character far too petulantly (although I was happy that her team won the championship at the end). Other than that the acting is pretty good – Geena Davis is a strong lead character, for stunt casting Madonna and Rosie O’Donnell are actually quite excellent in supporting roles, and I warmed up to Tom Hanks as the angry drunk manager with a heart of gold. The scene that made me laugh the most is the one where he tries to upbraid a player for missing the cutoff but is unable to find any words. The thing I get out of watching this movie more than 20 years after it was made is that today we have a professional women’s basketball league and a professional women’s soccer league, but dang it! I just want a professional women’s baseball league, too.
Rating: ***
Panorama of the Mountains 