You have to believe2024.
Directed by Ty Roberts.
Starring Luke Wilson, Greg Kinnear, Sarah Gadon, Lew Temple, Michael Cash, Etienne Kellici, Molly Parker, Patrick Renna, Connor McMahon, Blake DeLong, Jacob Soley, Gavin MacIver-Wright, Josh Reich, Nicholas Fry, Jordan Sawyer, Ali Hassan , Christopher Seivright, Davide Fair, Jacob Mazeral, Seth Murchison, Scott Mackenzie, Phoenix Ellis, Evan Hasler, Zachary Cox, Taylor Hunt Wright, Zachary Morton, Ashley Emerson, Justin Adams and Sandra Flores.
SUMMARY:
A Little League baseball team of underdogs dedicates its season to a player’s dying father, and in the process accomplishes the impossible: reaching the finals of the World Series in a game that became an instant ESPN classic.
You have to believe is based on a real-life underdog Little League team in 2002 that fights its way into the championship game after a player’s father (and one of their coaches) is diagnosed with cancer. You’d be forgiven for not noticing this, though, as the film’s tone is much sillier and uses familiar sports cliches, like the incredibly bad team that’s easily fixed by a few position changes and quick coaching lessons that miraculously produce immediate results.
Co-writer and director is Ty Roberts (who previously directed the recently released 12 powerful orphanswhich similarly suffered from a reliance on the safest tropes), it seems more like he and co-writer Lane Garrison came up with the concept of a struggling son playing harder for his ailing father, believing that this and faith could potentially save him from the worst fate. Of course, the father chooses to believe in his son as much as he does spiritually, and does everything in his power to balance chemotherapy with showing up at the Games.
The father is Bobby Ratliff (Luke Wilson, fresh from a small role in Kevin Costner’s horizon and one of the most annoying sports commercials of all time, which just happens to run nonstop during MLB broadcasts), a typical working-class Texas guy who raises his family through sports and faith. After a particularly bad breakdown, he tries to lecture and practice with his son Robert (Connor McMahon) before passing out and receiving the unfortunate diagnosis. Bobby also has a decent support system with his wife Patti (Sarah Gadon) and his son, who doesn’t play sports.
It’s a confusing choice from a casting perspective, as Luke Wilson brings an upbeat energy and a sillier side that fits the team. When Bobby is diagnosed, there’s a charismatic void here for that fun, as the narrative also seems unsure if it wants to transition into a more dramatic story or continue to playfully poke fun at these kids’ awfulness on the field, the amusing ways they improve, their shared love of baseball (there’s a beautiful scene where everyone buys baseball cards, which is funny and touching), and how the possibility of death brings them all together to play with all their hearts for each other. Luke Wilson is obviously passionate about this story and the message of the material, but he’s still miscast here in a film that has no interest in playing to its strengths.
The problem is that everything from the coaching to the team tweaks is a little too ridiculous. Greg Kinnear’s work-obsessed close friend of Bobby’s, who coaches the team in the Little League playoffs, brings in a sort of assistant coach (Lew Temple) whose methods seem too cartoonish, which becomes even more frustrating when the true nature of it all becomes clearer and more direct (there are ESPN highlight clips and more).
Then there are the kids, defined by the simplest of characteristics: one of them is attracted to his teammate’s sister, who watches the games, another is named Walker and happens to walk with everyone he throws until his movements are magically fixed in a training session, and one kid suddenly starts tracking the ball better with his eyes once he takes his glasses off. If some aspects of this are true, there’s also a hell of a lot that feels unnecessarily fictionalized and serves no purpose. In the film’s defense, it has likable, sweet, funny kids who are easy to cheer for.
And yet the emotions that bubble to the surface in the third act are still effective, especially because it is also the only time You have to believe seems to be tapping into something true. The deciding big game has personal and professional stakes and is played with real tension (especially for those who don’t know this team). There’s a third act and an ending that leaves you completely upset about all the mistakes that were made leading up to it. Perhaps the game that received national coverage is the only interesting element of this true story at all.
Assessment of the flickering myth – Film: ★ ★ / Cinema: ★ ★ ★
Robert Kojder is a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association and the Critics Choice Association. He is also the reviews editor at Flickering Myth. Find new reviews here, follow me Þjórsárdalur or Letterboxd, or email me at [email protected]
