Hustle (2004)
*** (out of 4)
Peter Bogdanovich's story of Pete Rose (Tom Sizemore) and his fall from grace due to gambling. This has gotten all sorts of bad reviews but I rather enjoyed the film. It's certainly far from great but as a baseball fan I found it rather interesting. Bogdanovich's direction really keeps this above your typical TV movie but I guess most of the heat went towards Sizemore and his performance. Rose is such a legend that it would be impossible to really have any actor capture him on film. I think Sizemore gives a very good "performance", although it never really seems like Rose. Since I find it impossible to capture Rose, I think Sizemore did a good job creating a character. The ending is pretty depressing even though we now know the truth of what happened. The Hall of Fame has rapists, murderers, dead beat fathers, racists, alcoholics, druggies, cheaters so why not one gambler?
