The Hill, 2023.
Directed by Jeff Celenntano.
Starring Dennis Quaid, Scott Glenn, Bonnie Bedelia, Joelle Carter, Colin Ford, Adrian Eppley, Mila Harris, Wilbur Fitzgerald, James Devoti, Mark Rowe, Monica Louwerens, Jesse Berry, Mason Gillett, Ryan Dinning, Siena Bjornerud, Justin Miles, Taylor St. Clair, Carina Worm, David Silverman, Randy Houser, Tracie Frank, Mustapha J. Slack, Hailey Bithell, and Matthew Dwyer.
SYNOPSIS:
The remarkable true-life story of Rickey Hill’s improbable journey to play Major League Baseball.
This piece was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strike. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, The Hill wouldn’t exist.
Coming from director Jeff Celentano and the screenwriting team of Angelo Pizzo and Scott Marshall Smith (based on the previous script – something that shows in the sloppy construction – by Aric Hornig and Stephen Hintz), The Hill leaves no cliché unturned when driving home the “inspired” part of the description “inspired by a true story.”
Ostensibly about Rickey Hill, a disabled baseball prodigy suffering from degenerative spinal disease and leg braces disallowing him from fully rotating when swinging a baseball bat (played by Jesse Berry and Mason Gillett as a child and Colin Ford as a high school senior, all of whom are serviceable in the role), The Hill can’t help itself from often leaning into faith-based territory focusing on the boy’s pastor father James (Dennis Quaid). While he doesn’t mind Rickey successfully and enthusiastically tossing rocks into the air and smacking them with a stick, he has no interest in allowing his son to pursue his lofty ambitions of joining Major League Baseball, choosing to believe that God’s will is that he will follow in the same preaching path.
Giving a shred of credit where it is due, the filmmakers do seem aware that James and his unfounded dream-crushing doesn’t come from an initiative to do what the best for the boy medically, but rather selfishness, often ignoring miracles that happen right before his eyes. This also means that scenes where a young Rickey gets fed up and frustrated by the leg braces, smashing them and removing them to more easily swing a baseball bat, only to be able to walk around fine inexplicably, comes across as siding with higher powers over science, which is always a tough pill to swallow in modern times. The script is willing to portray James as a flawed religious individual slightly, but also quick to tap right back into the faith-based miracle well in other areas, because, at the end of the day, that’s what this film is about more than baseball.
The tonal imbalance between religious fare and baseball is just one of many issues here, though, as The Hill pushes itself from one ham-fisted, corny, saccharine, phony sequence to the next. There are childhood girlfriends that come back into the picture not even five minutes after a flash forward to high school, childhood bullies playing for opposing teams during high school games, illnesses worsening at the most convenient plotting times, deaths in the family to provide one last motivational push chasing those dreams, and a legendary scout that is comically portrayed as a villainous obstacle rather than a believable human being. And those are just the things that come to mind off-hand.
There is something to the idea and presumable truth that, despite these medical setbacks, Rickey remained resilient and continued to prove everyone wrong, which somehow wasn’t enough of a miracle to his father. There’s a brief line of dialogue where James, who refuses to watch his son play baseball, is implied to be ashamed that his son is crippled and worries the rest of the world will laugh at him even if he does find professional success. However, the filmmakers never explore that, considering that would involve portraying James a bit too much of an antagonist when ultimately, the good book on making movies of this ilk forbids doing anything that might upset the religious target demographic.
That’s one way of saying there are nuggets of compelling dynamics here, and the performances themselves are solid, but the filmmakers are too cowardly even to attempt going near that strike soon. Equally insulting is the portrayal of baseball itself, which comes across as dishonest and fake to anyone familiar with the sport. The Hill eventually reaches a high-stakes scouting game where Rickey gets to prove his worth once and for all, but his performance in that game is so unrealistically, absurdly phenomenal that it’s impossible to take seriously. Although, at least for about 30 minutes, the film is actually about baseball.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ / Movie: ★ ★
Robert Kojder is a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association and the Critics Choice Association. He is also the Flickering Myth Reviews Editor. Check here for new reviews, follow my Twitter or Letterboxd, or email me at MetalGearSolid719@gmail.com
Originally published August 25, 2023. Updated August 26, 2023.
