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diversions
'Rookie' touches
on dreams
By Phil Witte
On-line Forty-Niner
Good things come
to those who wait, the saying goes. But better things come
to those who wait and put in the hard work required to fulfill
lifelong dreams.
"The Rookie," starring Dennis Quaid, tells the story
of Jim Morris, who succeeded at his childhood dream of playing
major league baseball.
What makes Morris' story unusual is that he began his major
league career at age 35, when most careers are ending or are
distant memories.
The film's prologue tells the story of two nuns who, after
investing in an oil well in an arid stretch of west Texas,
bless the site with rose petals and a prayer to St. Rita,
the patron saint of lost causes.
The spot eventually became the ironically-named Big Lake,
Texas (it's neither big nor has a lake), where Morris would
eventually settle as a boy with his military family.
Morris' dreams of pitching in the big leagues are hampered
by the family's constant moves, and by the time we see Quaid
as Morris, his baseball dream is long over, ending years before
in the minor leagues.
He's now a high school chemistry teacher with a wife and three
children, now dreaming of a bigger teaching job in El Paso.
He is also the baseball coach. But in Texas, where football
is king, baseball gets such little respect that the field
is barely more than a vacant lot.
Morris tries to inspire a team that had won only one game
in each of its last three seasons, but in the end it is they
who inspire him. If they win the championship, he must try
out for the majors.
Morris has been pitching in secret and thinks the whole idea
is ludicrous, until he gets a call back from the Tampa Bay
Devil Rays. He gets a second chance to pursue his dream, a
decade after four shoulder surgeries ended the first.
Were the story not true, it would never have gotten made.
The film's director John Lee Hancock even said the script
on its own, "would be preposterous. No one would touch
this movie."
But like Homer Hickam's story in "October Sky,"
Morris' story shows that dreams can come true, no matter how
big the obstacles might be.
Quaid, whose left-handedness was a happy coincidence for filmmakers,
worked for four months to throw like a major league pitcher.
Quaid gives Morris a solid, quintessentially American look
and conveys both the athleticism and paternal qualities of
the role.
Quaid has admitted to not timing his own pitches for fear
of disappointment.
"I got the form down and sound effects did the rest,"
he said.
Rachel Griffiths gives an excellent performance as Morris'
supportive, yet independent wife, Lori. She provides the stability
that holds the family together during Jim's long months in
the minor leagues.
Especially entertaining are the younger performances, from
Morris' children, highlighted by the adorable Angus Jones,
to the players on the high school baseball team, who, apart
from the catcher, actually look like high schoolers.
Though it does bog down in the middle, Hancock paces the film
well. The visuals are excellent -- from the vast wastelands
of Texas to the inevitable climax, filmed partly during the
seventh inning stretch of an actual Texas Rangers-Tampa Bay
Devil Rays game.
While not everyone might find Morris' story fascinating, for
what it is, a story of fulfilling dreams, fathers and sons
and marriage, it is both touching and illuminating.
"The Rookie" is rated G for an utter lack of profanity
and cynicism.
B+
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Disney
Enterprises, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Golden Globe-winner Rachel Griffiths plays Lorri
Morris, Jim's (Dennis Quaid) wife in "The Rookie."
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