LA Times loves 'Off the Black'

December 8, 2006
MOVIE REVIEW
'Off the Black'
By Kevin Crust, Times Staff Writer

The gentle drama "Off the Black" takes its title from baseball jargon describing a pitch just off the plate, but despite its frame of reference, the movie is really about the complex relationships that plague fathers and sons. Nick Nolte stars as Ray Cook, a man in late middle age who has slid to the fringes of society, connected to others only through his work as a high school umpire, and even then it's from behind a mask.

A controversial call in a key game and an act of vandalism introduces Ray to Dave Tibbel (Trevor Morgan), a 17-year-old pitcher. The pair's uneasy relationship gradually grows to genuine affection and it's to the film's credit that whenever it veers toward schmaltz, writer-director James Ponsoldt guides it in a slightly different direction.

Dave's father (Timothy Hutton) is a veritable somnambulist, a wreck since his wife left two years earlier, and Ray's elderly father (Michael Higgins) suffers from Alzheimer's disease. A more conventional film would view Ray and Dave as men seeking surrogates, but "Off the Black" allows them a looser, less hierarchical bond. Though Ray bestows life lessons based on stories of obscure ballplayers, they're handled in an easygoing manner that's never heavy-handed.

Ponsoldt allows the story to progress unhurriedly as Dave begins to see Ray as a more interesting figure than the "whack job" he first encounters. Even though we've seen Nolte play this type of shambling curmudgeon before, he's seldom filled a character with such empathy. "Off the Black" is a modest, bittersweet character study that hits its mark.

http://www.calendarlive.com/movies/reviews/cl-et-off8dec08,0,373712.story