Movie review: A Mile in His Shoes

A while back I wrote about The Quitter (twice, in fact) which, IMHO, is one of the worst “baseball movies” ever made. I put that in quotes because, of course, it’s not really about baseball. They could have just have easily made the lead character the proprietor of a laundromat.

But researching one baseball movie leads to the rabbit hole so I found A Mile in His Shoes, a “a 2011 Canadian made-for-television sports drama,” according to the movies Wikipedia page. (Here’s the IMDB link.)

Straight away, let me say the concept is praiseworthy even if the book is heavy-handed: Tussler suffers from Asperger and it is really heartwarming to see him succeed against the usual obstacles of ignorance and prejudice. The film is based on the 2008 novel The Legend of Mickey Tussler by Frank Nappi; Jason Koornick wrote the screenplay. (I reviewed Legend for the Bookshelf. The third book in the series comes out in April.)

That’s just one of the problems of the film version. The novel is set in the 1940s, so it is somewhat understandable that Asperger was unrecognized by society. But for some reason — perhaps to make it more relatable (and cheaper to produce) — the film modernizes to the present day. That makes it even more frustrating that Tussler’s condition has to be spelled out to teammates and others. Paraphrasing here: “Mickey has Asperger Syndrome. That’s a form of autism.” Uh, what’s autism, skipper?

Dean Cain leads the cast as Arthur “Murph” Murphy, manager of the River Rats, a rag-tag low level minor league team that needs help. He’s sent on a scouting assignment and discovers Tussler by accident when his car breaks down near a farm and he can’t get cell phone service to call AAA. Of course.

Turns out that Tussler — played by Luke Schroder, son of Ricky — can really throw the apple — literally. He hurls them at a bucket so hard that they explode and that’s how he feeds the pigs. Problem solved. Of course. The only thing standing in the way is Mickey’s overprotective father, who is obviously very backward thinking because he wears overalls in every scene.

Somehow Murphy wins over Mickey’s mom, who convinces her menacing hubby to let the boy try even though she seems so cowed by him that a viewer might suspect spousal abuse is an issue.

Long story short (too late), Mickey gains the acceptance of his teammates (save the one pitcher whose spot in the rotation the interloper usurps; more on him later). He succeeds lots and the team improves. There is the standard “situation” that takes a dangerous turn, but he comes back for “the big game,” finally winning his dad’s approval.

About that aforementioned pitcher? His nickname is Lefty, but he’s right-handed. Is that supposed to be ironic? Like calling a small guy Jumbo?

The action scenes generally depict the ballplayers more like Little Leaguers than professionals. I know there are some legitimately weird pitching motions, but Tussler on the mound doesn’t look like he could put the ball through a wet paper towel. In a scene in which “Lefty”– no better in his athletic form — is mowing down the opposition, the third batter shown is wearing a different uniform… and the stands are suddenly empty. Hello, production department? Get me continuity.

Save for Cain, the acting is pretty wooden and the characters are caricatures. The opposing manager (the River Rats only seem to play one team throughout the movie, with the same umpire behind the plate; what the hell kind of league is this?) has beef with Murphy, blaming him for the collision they had while teammates that ended both their careers. As such, he tries to take every opportunity to stick it to him, short of outright assault on the field. Every time Murphy calls time out, this guy runs onto the field to challenge it? Mickey’s friend and minder, a congenial generic Hispanic type, warns the lad’s folks — who have showed up only for that final game — not to have the nachos. Dad, still clad in the overalls and straw fedora that brand him as backward (although not stupid), asks his wife, “What are Nocth-oes?” (as spelled out by the closed captioning.) Really?

There’s also a religious element that runs under the film, but it’s not terribly heavy-handed. One scene that kind of bothered me as a non-Christian was when Murphy told his team to take a knee in the locker room prior to the final game. but the convocation — led by Mickey — is pretty generic.

I could go on but you get the idea.There are too many elements in the movie that would/could never happen in the real baseball world. Perhaps the producer’s figured the audience would be so taken with the story that they wouldn’t notice or care about the details.

Suffice it so say there’s a lot of eye-rolling involved in this one and I realize criticizing a project such as this, with such an admirable message, is like saying I’m against puppies. But I don’t think it’s too much to expect a certain level of competence to go along with it.