Review - Field of Dreams

I want to like this movie. I really do. Any attempt to appreciate baseball on an emotional level is at least worth a look. I even set it up for nearly optimal viewing conditions, saving it for a chilly off-season afternoon when I’d really savor a bit of summer. But there’s just something about this tale of a guy impelled by disembodied voices to turn part of his Iowa cornfield into a baseball diamond for the ghosts of the Black Sox. I don’t fault it for being quirky and sentimental. I fault it for being so self-consciously in-your-face quirky and sentimental that it comes across as baseball transformed into a Hallmark card trying to be clever. Every time it seems like it’s going to say something honest or be entertaining in any way, it lapses once again into Kevin-Costner-y silliness. Mildly amusing