HARDBALL

In this urban fairy tale, geeky white guy Conor O’Neill (Keanu Reeves) becomes the coach of a Little League team from one of Chicago’s most hellacious housing projects. He does so not from the goodness of his heart but because he’s a boozer with a massive gambling debt. The arrangement is orchestrated by a slick broker who wants to “pay his debt to society” without getting his hands dirty. Along the path of travails and one-hoppers, emotions come to outweigh money, Conor gets a shot at redemption, and the kids learn that there is more to life than bullets and crack.

The usually wooden Reeves is effective here; it’s the cliché-laden script, based on Daniel Coyle’s novel, that drops the ball. Diane Lane is a pleasant addition as the gritty schoolteacher who, like the kids, sees potential in Conor’s two-time loser. And director Brian Robbins, playing in a familiar ballpark, is wise not to stick to The Bad News Bears playbook. Instead he lets the horrors of inner-city life and the spirit of youthful innocence carry the film.

— Tom Meek