The Rookie

On this stormy Saturday evening in Dallas, we had a family movie night. Mike picked the show: The Rookie.

Can you even believe that neither one of us had ever seen this film?

IT'S ABOUT BASEBALL. IT'S BASED ON A TRUE STORY. THE TEXAS RANGERS EVEN SHOW UP IN IT IN THE END.

It was so good. We both loved it, and the kids loved it too. (For the record, Eliana probably could not have cared less that we were watching it, but she hung in there, and cheered when the Rangers were on the field, even though they were not the team that Jimmy Morris was pitching for.) (Jimmy Morris = the guy the movie was about.) 

After the kids were in bed, I asked Mike what he liked about the movie, what made it different than some of the other movies that are out there, especially today, that encourage kids (or people in general) to follow their dreams. This movie is definitely about a dream being realized. But. It is definitely different than the more recent movies that have been released. 

I love asking Mike questions like this, because he's so thoughtful and can put things into words that I can't. He talked about many things, but the ones that stuck out to me were the honest struggle that Jimmy faces within himself regarding his baseball career that didn't go the way he had hoped when he was young and was drafted into the minors, the genuine sense of meaning that he had in his life in spite of the fact that his original dream wasn't realized, and the way he poured himself into others who were in his life, including his family, his science students, and the high school baseball team that he coached, rather than letting bitterness and resentment eat away at him over the years. We also talked about the relationships in the movie, particularly between Jimmy and his parents, who ended up divorced. Jimmy and his dad had a complicated dynamic, and I thought it was great that the movie didn't try to wrap it all up in the end and make it unrealistically tidy. There was, however, a theme of forgiveness, though, and progress and change. 

And Dennis Quaid was fantastic. He came pretty close to breaking the rule: there's no crying in baseball. I confess...I was teary, more than once. 

So if you're looking for a good family flick, this one was a home run. I'm still mulling over a lot of what was in it, and what Mike had to say about it. And I'm also getting more excited every day for this season to start!