Review of Field of Dreams (1989) by Tom R — 02 May 2012

(3 Stars) If you look over the fact that Field of Dreams is a bit inconsistent, doesn't explain a lot of things, and has main characters who are kind of idiots, then... it's okay. I can see why it's an iconic film because it's an interesting story with a few quotable lines and baseball's one of the most American things you can make a story about. But maybe I'm missing something, but it seems like the filmmakers really, REALLY hate Iowa, especially when they show their citizens off as closed-minded book burners.

The first act of this film seems overly simplified. After Ray Kinsella (Kevin Costner) gives a quick reason why he moved to Iowa, he decides to build a baseball field after hearing voices... I'm just glad those voices weren't telling him to kill someone, since he would absolutely do whatever they say. And he just HAPPENS to know how to build a baseball field, and with zero resistance from his wife (Amy Madigan). Then, he sees ghosts of past players playing in his field, including Shoeless Joe Jackson (Ray Liotta). A lot of the action in the film happens "just because." I wonder how many times ay Kinsella says a variation of "I don't know why I have to do this, but I have to do it." I'm not going to harp on this as much as I could since there are a lot of Twilight Zone episodes where nothing is explained, but those are usually good. And Field of Dreams is basically one long Twilight Zone episode... and an okay one at that. Whether you can turn your mind off to logic yields how much you will enjoy it.