It was nice enough to leave on in the background, and if you want to feel good with reasonably low stakes, this is a good bet.
But there's not much tension or drama here because the characters don't face much adversity.
Which is to say, this really is a cathartic wish-fulfilment film about a kid who overcomes all challenges simply by being gifted and working hard, and proves the bad coach wrong by being *the best in the world*. Don't expect a character arc.
But it's light-hearted fun if you view this film as the fantasy it is.
But there's not much tension or drama here because the characters don't face much adversity.
- Kyle doesn't make the school team but it's because of an unfair process, so there's nothing he needs to improve on
- I thought it might be about his family needing to make time for him, but his dad has plenty of time for him, his brother makes him for him, even his brother's girlfriend makes time for him
- He suffers no setbacks in terms of his baseball ability, he just trains and is supposedly the potential best player on the planet
- I thought maybe there would be something about his mental ability to play the game, or about overcoming his fear of pitching, but he overcomes his fear with a quick pep-talk from his brother, and then is breaking speed records despite never pitching in a game before. Mentally, he has no difficulties with the game, and any previous trauma he experienced is not explored at all (to the degree I don't even know if his dad was telling the truth or not when he was explaining why Kyle fears pitching)
- I thought it may have been about the stresses of helping a son train in baseball, but his dad doesn't really struggle, and manages to make a sale, indicating things are gonna go well at work, and his mom accepts his dad's devotion to training Kyle, telling him to make Kyle a champion. There's no family discord at all
- I thought it might be about his dad becoming overbearing in training Kyle, as he starts out pretty laid back, but then starts telling Kyle that every moment spent not training is an opportunity someone else gets. But Kyle just... trains really hard with no problems
- I thought it might be about the dad realising he's living vicariously through his son, as the film mentions the dad gave up on his own dreams. But this doesn't go anywhere except making Kyle never want to give up
- Kyle never *does* want to give up, by the way. He tells his dad "make sure I never give up", but then never needs any motivational encouragement
- He doesn't especially struggle against any players. He gets his comeuppance against players simply by being better than them (so there's no tricks to overcome better players, he just *is* the best player)
- Everything comes easily. Kyle is the best player in the world but, despite training hard, doesn't look like he trains at the intense level the best player in the world would train at. He also just doesn't look like he plays *that* well, or look *that* athletic, so it's a tough pill to swallow.
- Even his main "adversary", if you can call him that, the school coach, just admits he was wrong to cut Kyle, and again this is simply achieved by Kyle being a better player
Which is to say, this really is a cathartic wish-fulfilment film about a kid who overcomes all challenges simply by being gifted and working hard, and proves the bad coach wrong by being *the best in the world*. Don't expect a character arc.
But it's light-hearted fun if you view this film as the fantasy it is.