The naked facts of Pete Rose's life would seem to be the stuff that
even an imaginative writer might have trouble coming up with:
major league baseball's all-time hits leader, a hometown boy who
became a hometown AND national sports hero, a player who
became an American icon for determination, grit and the
embodiment of willpower.
Then, for the traditional tragedy lover in all of us, comes the fall....a
tumble from living legend, to a man in public and possibly
personal denial, finally ending for Rose banned from baseball a
convicted tax cheat and weepy self-confessed gambler.
Unfortunately, "Hustle" seems to have missed every chance to
extract even a scintilla of pathos from Rose's life, instead
concentrating on a thin portrayal of the sordid events stemming
from his gambling addiction. Whether inside Pete Rose there's a
really a significant inner person worthy of close examination is a
good question, but it's a question that "Hustle" never even gets a
sniff of.
A miscast Sizemore and a way past prime Bogdonavich together
fail to create a single genuine moment.
