It’s a rare sports film that doesn’t culminate in a big game. This baseball tale doesn’t even have a big game. For a player trying to make it to the major leagues, just getting to play the next game is the point. For a pitcher Miguel “Sugar” Santos (real ballplayer Algenis Perez Soto), playing the next game means being able to send money to his family in the Dominican Republic, and not having to find work in a poor country.
Writing/directing team Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck (Half Nelson) follow Sugar’s attempt to beat the odds. For a Dominican it means first “graduating” from a local baseball academy before even getting a shot at the lowest minor league in the United States. Rudimentary English lessons (“home run,” “I got it,” and so on) are part of the package. But the heart of the movie is Sugar’s season in a low minor league team in rural Iowa, where Sugar becomes merely one of several promising newcomers. His character is particular, but is also meant to represent the thousands of Dominicans hoping to make it to the big leagues, most of whom will not succeed. This is also an immigrant story. Boden and Fleck handle the culture clash aspect with subtlety. The language barrier, for example, results in Sugar repeatedly ordering French toast at breakfast because he can’t read the menu. Eventually, he figures things out, but not in the way you expect.
IMDB link
viewed on DVD [Netflix] and reviewed 4/2/10
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