“Eephus” interests us for what is about and then touches us for how it is about. This is a very plain and simple story about a bunch of amateur baseball players trying to play their last game to the end, but it is alternatively amusing and moving to observe their little struggles along the game, and its eventual bittersweet ending will linger on your mind for a while.    

The movie is about one particular day at Soldiers Field, a little baseball field located in Douglas, Massachusetts. At the beginning, a local radio program tells us a bit about what is soon going to happen to this small place, and we slowly gather how important this day will be to the members of two local amateur baseball teams. It will be their last day at the field before it is demolished for building an art school, but they are ready to keep things going to the end, even though there are not many audiences from the very start.

As they prepare for their last game, the movie observes two old men who come for monitoring the game as they did many times for years. Both of them are not that enthusiastic, but they are willing to witness the last day of the field and its players as long as possible, and the movie often brings some nice details on how they record the scores of those two baseball teams, respectively.

Of course, things do not go very well right from the first inning. For example, one of the two baseball teams has a little problem due to one of its key members being quite late, and that leads to a little serious discussion on the possibility of their game getting forfeited according to the rule. In addition, many of the baseball players are not particularly enthusiastic as knowing too well that nothing will change in the end.

Nevertheless, the mood gradually becomes lightened up as the players continue their little game. Sure, their talent and physical condition do not reach to the level of Major League Baseball (MLB), but they cannot help but feel happy to have a bit more fun and excitement on their field. In addition, there are also several bystanders coming and then watching their game for a while, and these minor characters bring some extra humor to the story.

The screenplay by director/writer/co-producer/editor/co-composer Carson Lund, who made several short films before making a feature film debut here in this movie, does not delve that deep into its numerous main characters, but it subtly lets us get more accustomed to their humanity and personality along the story. I must admit that I cannot remember every baseball player in the film, but I remember well a number of small but colorful individual moments among their different personalities. For example, I am still amused by a scene where several baseball players deliberately tease one particular member of their opponent team who is supposed to be on a diet, and I also chuckled a bit when both of the two baseball teams come to run out of balls later in their game.  

And we also observe how serious they really are about their game. Although they do not talk that much about their respective lives outside the field, it is clear that baseball has been something to cheer them up in one way or another for many years, and the melancholic mood of resignation is all the more palpable as some of them become a little philosophic about their lives and baseball.

While adamantly focusing on what is happening inside and around the field, the movie indirectly reminds us of how the world keeps going as usual outside the field, and Lund, who also worked as the sound designer for his film, did a commendable job of utilizing various sounds for subtle dramatic effects to be appreciated. Whenever we hear the distant sound of a church bell along with the main characters of the film, we cannot help but become more conscious of that unstoppable current of time, and we also become more aware of how much they struggle to play against it more. Around the later innings of their game, some of them become too exhausted or disinterested to keep playing along with others, and that certainly makes the field all the emptier and more melancholic than before.

In the end, there eventually comes the end of the day, but the remaining players become quite resourceful just for playing to the end of the last inning of their game. It is quite apparent to everyone on the field that the time for the end of their inconsequential baseball career has come, but they do not give up at all, and that is the main reason why the finale feels so poignant under its mournfully somber atmosphere.    

The main cast members of the film, most of whom are not so recognizable to many of us, are effortless in their modest but well-rounded ensemble performance. As they have each own small moment along the story without being showy at all, we come to focus more on their characters instead of themselves, and their characters come to leave an indelible impression on us as a distinctive human group. 

I must confess that it does not come that close to me as a foreign guy who does not have much interest in baseball or any other sports, but “Eephus”, whose very title is incidentally a term for a certain type of curve ball, still engaged and then moved me enough on the whole. In short, this is one of the more interesting films of this year, and I think you should give it a chance especially if you are interested in baseball more than me.