The Final Season
Norway, Iowa sits in the heart of Iowa. A small town with a high school of only 100 kids, the school managed to put together a remarkable history in baseball that encompassed 19 straight State Championships in a 24 year run. They went toe to toe with school’s 10 times their size and came out on top. The town embraced them and the tradition reigned down from generation to generation. That is until the day the powers to be decided to merge tiny Norway High School with a larger school, and thus destroy the storied tradition that had touched so many lives.
The Final Season is a movie that tells this remarkable true story of a no-name Women’s Volleyball Coach Kent Stock (Sean Astin) being given the task of managing the high school baseball team in its final season after the political ousting of their legendary manager (Powers Boothe). It deals with the turmoil the tiny town deals with as they lose their most prized possesion, as well as the relationships between members of the team and a brazen newcomer from the city.
Unfortunately, while this story is fascinating and one that needs to be told, it’s done poorly in this movie. Sports movies have evolved, and the Final Season felt like it was stuck in the mold of the early 90’s feelgood sports flicks. The characters were too drawn out and simply fell into a preconceived stereotype we’ve seen over and over in movies. Astin, who plays the lead role in the film, never really comes across like a genuine baseball guy. Perhaps its his other roles that have been typecast into my mind, but watching him try to pass himself off as some gritty baseball guy was laughable at times.
The most disappointing aspect to the movie was that it had a great storyline to work with. The decline of small town high schools in society as political pressure urges consolidation is still a major issue in many rural parts of this country. Their loss of identity, economy, and most importantly a sense of community should have been the focal point of the story. And while they did cover it to a degree, The Final Season veered off too frequently to truly capitalize on the story. They mixed in too many side stories from high school romances, strained father-son relations, and even a random scene with a vocal community member coming down with a heart attack. These side stories never truly develop throughout the film and you’re left with a lot of pointless scenes.
I wanted to like this movie going in being a huge baseball fan that always seems to fall for the sappy underdog story. But this film never really had an identity to it and left me rolling my eyes at the screen too much. There are far too many cheesy scenes, and far too many bits that have been done at naseum in sports films. The movie would have benefited from consolidating some of the storylines and giving it a more serious tone throughout. I can see the straight-to-DVD film as a potential rental for a family film if you’ve got kids in a fix for something sports related. Otherwise, there are much better options in the baseball drama department such as Field of Dreams or the underated For Love of the Game.
1.5 out of 5 stars
Bonus: Extensive extras that include a director’s commentary, trailers, and “making of” featurette. Also a piece on the true story of the Norway High School team that is actually better than the movie.
This movie was received in 2 days from Netflix.
