From the start, there’s plenty to like about The Catcher Was a Spy, directed by Ben Lewin and starring Paul Rudd. Based on the fascinating life of pro baseball player Moe Berg and adapted from Nicholas Dawidoff’s book of the same name, this is the type of film that feels slightly out of place at Sundance. There’s nothing particularly controversial about the subject matter, nothing brazen or overly ambitious in the technique. Lewin is clearly angling for a classical Hollywood studio picture aesthetic and he mostly succeeds, only sometimes betrayed by his budget.
Rudd plays Berg, a washed-up catcher who takes on a job with the Office of Strategic Services (Oss) after retiring from baseball. We learn early on that he’s a man of many faces. Unmarried but in a relationship with the longing Estella (Sienna Miller, wasted here) and Jewish but determined to blend in...
Rudd plays Berg, a washed-up catcher who takes on a job with the Office of Strategic Services (Oss) after retiring from baseball. We learn early on that he’s a man of many faces. Unmarried but in a relationship with the longing Estella (Sienna Miller, wasted here) and Jewish but determined to blend in...
- 1/22/2018
- by Dan Mecca
- The Film Stage
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