…and the audience I saw it with seemed more than willing to give it five. Most actually applauded as the screen credits rolled.

Brad Pitt gives another excellent performance, and if his acting in this role truly reflects the way Billy Beane conducts business, Beane may be just the dynamic leader we need to defeat Cubness and Wrigleyism.

Although the film is filled with glib assumptions that promote the idea of sabermetrics as gospel, it is extremely well-written and acted, and has only a few dull spots toward the end. Maybe the best baseball film since "Pride of the Yankees."

And it is at the end that we realize why Beane has kept himself in baseball’s ultimate backwater, and why he now may be ready to leave for the right offer.