Review: 'The Hill' is an inspirational sports movie at its most shamelessly manipulative, but still emotionally effective

The sports drama “The Hill” tells the true story of a baseball phenom who could hit the ball harder than anything — and the movie handles its emotional beats the same way, swinging for the fences and landing with the subtlety of a baseball hitting a windshield.

The hero of our story is Rickey Hill, who we encounter as a headstrong teenage prospect (played by Colin Ford) before flashing back to his childhood in east Texas, sometime in the early ‘60s. Little Rickey (Jesse Berry) can hit a rock with a stick very far — and, when given the chance to swing a real bat, knocks the ball into the next field over.

However, Rickey has two impediments that make his baseball prospects limited. One is that he wears braces on his legs, because of a degenerative spine disorder he suffered since birth. The other is his father, James Hill (Dennis Quaid), a Baptist minister who has determined that his younger son’s destiny is to preach the Lord’s word, not play a game. 

Rickey’s mother, Helen (Joelle Carter), and Helen’s crotchety mom, Lillian (Bonnie Bedelia), believe in Rickey. So does his older brother, Robby (Mason Gillett). So does Gracie (Mile Harris), a girl his age who calls Rickey “my boyfriend” — and whose heart is broken when the Hill family is forced to move when the congregants throw James out of their church.

Flash-forward to the ‘70s, and Ford’s Rickey is a star player for his high-school team, and attracting interest from scouts and sportswriters. One such writer brings along his intern – a now-grown Gracie (Siena Bjornerud), who has continued to love Rickey from afar.

Rickey seems on a trajectory toward fulfilling his baseball dreams, until a freak injury tears up his ankle. The doctor looks at the ankle, but also sees Rickey has “the spine of a 60-year-old man,” and tells him he may recover enough to walk, but not play baseball again. Rickey is determined to beat those odds, and be fit enough to try out for an assembly of baseball scouts, led by the legendary scout Red Murff (played by Scott Glenn, giving us a reunion of “The Right Stuff,” 40 years later).

The screenwriters here are Angelo Pizzo, who wrote the sports dramas “Rudy” and “Hoosiers,” and the late Scott Marshall Smith, who wrote the biographical dramas “Men of Honor” and “When the Game Stands Tall.” With that much inspirational DNA, the story here can’t help but elicit an emotional response. The tears are not so much jerked as forcibly yanked from the audience’s eyes.

The shameless manipulation director Jeff Celentano builds up hits its apex in the final scene, a pivotal baseball game where Rickey must prove his skills or forever kiss his baseball dreams goodbye — all while the announcer (played by Hall of Fame pitcher and analyst John Smoltz) drums the importance of every swing into the audience’s heads. “The Hill,” ultimately hits with power, but without finesse.

——

‘The Hill’

★★1/2

Opens Friday, August 25, in theaters. Rated PG for thematic content, language, and smoking throughout. Running time: 126 minutes.