It's 1960. Sports writer Al Stump (Robert Wuhl) is told that legendary baseball player and malcontent Ty Cobb (Tommy Lee Jones) wants to meet him. Cobb is over 70 and has been inducted into the Hall of Fame. Al arrives to gunfight in the mansion. Cobb has chased off most of the staff. He's a bitter drunk, a racist, and a violent bully. He demands that Al write a fluff-piece biography. They have an incident with nightclub cigar girl Ramona (Lolita Davidovich).
Ty is a grumpy old man. Unlike the comedy, he's not loveable but he is interesting. Tommy Lee Jones does an amazing job. It's a compelling performance of an offensive character. TLJ almost makes the audience love him but he's a horrible, horrible man. That's the great conflict in the movie. Do we actually like him? Do we pity him? It makes it hard to like this movie. Again, he's a horrible, horrible character. I do question whether he actually pistol-whipped a man to death in real life. Davidovich has a small section but an outsized effect. Her scene is shocking. The movie is thirty minutes too long. I would have ended it quickly soon after the Hall of Fame. I don't need to get deeper into his mind. I don't need to know his dark family secret. I'm sure he's terribly damaged with all kinds of crazy dark secrets. I don't even need Al's own drama. He's only the lens through which we see this story. We don't need to get close and personal with the lens. The story was done after the Hall of Fame. We just needed a closing text telling us when he dies.
Ty is a grumpy old man. Unlike the comedy, he's not loveable but he is interesting. Tommy Lee Jones does an amazing job. It's a compelling performance of an offensive character. TLJ almost makes the audience love him but he's a horrible, horrible man. That's the great conflict in the movie. Do we actually like him? Do we pity him? It makes it hard to like this movie. Again, he's a horrible, horrible character. I do question whether he actually pistol-whipped a man to death in real life. Davidovich has a small section but an outsized effect. Her scene is shocking. The movie is thirty minutes too long. I would have ended it quickly soon after the Hall of Fame. I don't need to get deeper into his mind. I don't need to know his dark family secret. I'm sure he's terribly damaged with all kinds of crazy dark secrets. I don't even need Al's own drama. He's only the lens through which we see this story. We don't need to get close and personal with the lens. The story was done after the Hall of Fame. We just needed a closing text telling us when he dies.