It’s easy to imagine scrappy filmmakers rummaging through the anecdotes of history, searching for amazing-but-true stories to transform into hit movies (or at least some Oscar bait). But it’s not enough merely to find a fascinating nugget of trivia; you also have to turn it into a good film. And therein lies the tragedy of “The Catcher Was a Spy.”
“Catcher” stars Paul Rudd as real-life pro baseball player Moe Berg, whose sporting career was perhaps overshadowed by his bizarre overqualifications: He graduated Princeton, Magna Cum Laude, and was fluent in multiple languages. He made regular guest appearances on highfalutin trivia shows. And to top it all off, he was a spy for the U.S. government during World War II.
It’s the sort of character description that would be wildly implausible if it wasn’t, you know, totally true. Berg’s life is a natural for the movies, but it’s difficult to imagine how the film we got out of it turned out so dramatically inert.
Directed by Ben Lewin (“The Sessions”), “Catcher” has all the ingredients of a thrilling pulp story. Berg is a larger-than-life character played by one of the smarmiest actors in Hollywood (and that’s a compliment). He’s directly involved in an assassination attempt against Werner Heisenberg (Mark Strong), who appears to be developing a nuclear bomb for Adolf Hitler. These are not subtle storytelling beats.
“Catcher” also portrays its Jewish protagonist as a closeted gay or bisexual man, making him a national hero at a time when his own identity was ostracized on multiple fronts. Lewin’s film practically treats Berg’s sexual orientation as its own superpower. When he’s questioned by a commanding officer and asked point-blank if he’s gay, Berg cleverly smirks, “I’m good at keeping secrets.” Which of course makes him the perfect man for the job.
And yet “The Catcher Was a Spy” undersells every major moment in Berg’s life. There are no big heroic moments, the suspense is muted, the romance is sidelined, and the stakes relatively nebulous. Heck, Berg never even confirms whether Heisenberg was making the bomb in the first place. The biggest adrenaline pump comes when Berg, stir-crazy after working at a desk during World War II, runs at full speed down a hallway. There’s a shootout later on that gets less attention than that one short sprint.
It’s easy to imagine “Catcher” playing like a pointed response to Marvel superheroics, in which a larger-than-life real hero gets to play Captain America while representing Jewish and LGBTQ+ audiences alike. The material is right there, in the plot. But instead it’s a film of quiet conversations, minimal action and vague suspense.
So what, then, is the point of “The Catcher Was a Spy” if not to entertain? If not to thrill? If not to elevate Moe Berg’s status in history? It’s generally hard to figure that out from what Ben Lewin’s film shows us. Lewin seems to think that Berg was kind of a neat guy, likable and thoughtful, who did some interesting things in World War II. He rescued Berg’s historical anecdote but kept his story anecdotal, which hardly seems worth the bother.
Lewin’s film is not a tough watch, and if you don’t know anything about Berg it might be mildly interesting. But it’s a small film about a big person, and so light it betrays itself. There is substance here. There is entertainment to be found. And yet “The Catcher Was a Spy” simply takes its eye off the ball, and never finds it again.
20 Highest-Grossing Baseball Movies, From 'League of Their Own' to 'Major League' (Photos)
Let's get into the spirit of a new MLB season with some of the biggest baseball movies that all hit a commercial home run. These are the highest grossing baseball movies of all time, ranked from lowest to highest.
20. "Mr. 3000" - $21.8 million
Bernie Mac plays a former baseball great who returns to the league at age 47 after learning he was just a few hits shy of 3000.
Buena Vista
19. "Major League II" - $30.6 million
Charlie Sheen, Corbin Bernsen and Tom Berenger all came back for the sequel to "Major League," but Wesley Snipes had become a bigger star, and his role of Willie Mays Hayes was taken over by Omar Epps.
Warner Bros.
18. "The Sandlot" - $32.4 million
"The Sandlot" performed modestly at the box office in 1993, but it found a second life as a cult film on VHS and on DVD a decade after its release.
Twentieth Century Fox
17. "Bad News Bears" (2005) - $32.8 million
Billy Bob Thornton starred in Richard Linklater's remake of the '70s classic starring Walter Matthau.
Paramount Pictures
16. "For Love of the Game" - $35.1 million
Kevin Costner shows up quite a bit on this list. Sam Raimi directs Costner as a washed up pitcher reflecting on his career in baseball.
Universal
15. "Trouble With the Curve" - $35.7 million
Clint Eastwood and Amy Adams play a father and daughter trying to patch up their relationship during Eastwood's final season as a baseball scout.
Warner Bros.
14. "Million Dollar Arm" - $36.4 million
"Million Dollar Arm" kicked off a string of globe-hoping Disney movies, with Jon Hamm starring as a sports agent who travels to India in search of baseball talent on the cricket pitch.
Disney
13. "Hardball" - $40.2 million
This early-2000s Keanu Reeves hit stars a young Michael B. Jordan in this movie about a Cabrini Green little league team.
Paramount
12. "Fever Pitch" - $42 million
Jimmy Fallon and Drew Barrymore make for one of the more charming rom-com couples of late. But even more special about "Fever Pitch" is that it arrived in the year the Red Sox finally won the World Series.
Twentieth Century Fox
11. "The Natural" - $47 million
Robert Redford, Robert Duvall and Glenn Close star in Barry Levinson's inspiring classic that has been fodder for countless homages and parodies.
TriStar
10. "Major League" - $49.7 million
"Juuuust a bit outside!" The University of Arizona baseball team did their own version of the famous scene from this film where the players all arrive to spring training.
Paramount
9. "Angels in the Outfield" (1994) - $50.2 million
You've got to believe! A young Joseph Gordon-Levitt stars in this cute Disney movie about a baseball miracle.
Buena Vista
8. "Bull Durham" - $50.8 million
Kevin Costner again. This baseball romance even received an Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay.
Orion
7. "Rookie of the Year" - $53.6 million
Back when the Chicago Cubs were still lovable losers, it made sense that they might take a flyer on a miraculous young kid as depicted in Daniel Stern's family comedy.
Fox
6. "The Benchwarmers" - 59.8 million
"The Benchwarmers," starring Jon Heder, David Spade and Rob Schneider, was a hit with audiences, but much less so with critics, earning only a 25 on Metacritic.
Sony/Columbia
5. "Field of Dreams" - $64.3 million
Even more Kevin Costner. This weepy classic went on to earn three Oscar nominations and might be the best baseball movie ever.
Universal
4. "The Rookie" (2002) - $75.6 million
Dennis Quaid stars in this inspiring true story of Jim Morris, who discovered well past his prime that he could throw some real heat and ended up making a major league team.
Disney
3. "Moneyball" - $75.6 million
Nominated for six Oscars including Best Picture, the film adaptation of Michael Lewis's book starring Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill was an unexpected critical and commercial darling.
Sony
2. "42" - $95 million
Before he became Black Panther, Chadwick Boseman starred as Dodgers great Jackie Robinson in the biopic on his life, "42."
Warner Bros.
1. "A League of Their Own" - $107.5 million
"There's no crying in baseball!" Penny Marshall's hilarious story of the first female professional baseball league is the only movie to crack the $100 million mark.
Sony
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Get in the spirit of the World Series with these commercial home runs
Let's get into the spirit of a new MLB season with some of the biggest baseball movies that all hit a commercial home run. These are the highest grossing baseball movies of all time, ranked from lowest to highest.