THE ROOKIE (2002) *** My family's threatening not to let me watch any more ethnic movies: I watch The Pink Panther and I walk around for days talking like a Frenchmanwith three clotheslines on his nose; I watch this and I wander around sounding like one Willie Nelson roadie on three big Quaaludes. Not that there are any drugs in this (being a true story about Major League Baseball, you can be forgiven for wondering), but there is a Willie song....actually, the music is one of the strong parts: rather than themed songs they pretty much just throw in what I figure are the director's favorites (yeah John Hiatt's "Slow Turning" is one of mine, too). Adds to the ramshackle Texas tumbleweed feel...so it's a movie about baseball, and desert Texas, and dreams and family and Catholic saints... It does feel like it's trying to put in too much some times, like they aren't sure about how to linger on each dramatic step along life's way, or forget that they're supposed to be wondering about it...and Dennis Quaid wouldn't ever probably be my pick to carry a film, but we're not talking about the Babe Ruth story or even The Natural (my word, wouldn't that Robert Redford look idiotic in this essentially non-heroic role)...Dennis is real good as the everyman hero, the one who has doubts and falters and setbacks, and is probably worryin' about cryin' and makin' a fool out of himself as much as ever hoping for anything. I like it, I like evidence that things turn out (pretty much) this way sometimes, I like something that can give everybody a little bit of hope, and the effect that can have on them and everyone around them. I like how at the end they pan across all the townspeople, like on "Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman."
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