By: debbie lynn elias
There may be no crying in baseball but there certainly is praying – a lot of it – especially when it comes to THE YANKLES. The greatest American past-time, baseball has seen more than its share of movies made about it. From documentaries to biopics to underdogs to dreamers and even women, baseball movies have covered all the bases. Or have they? Obviously not because brothers David and Zev Brooks come out swinging, putting a twist on the familiar with an original, funny and thoroughly enjoyable new take on the game with THE YANKLES.
How can one not stop and chuckle on seeing a group of Yeshiva students wearing their requisite black and white suits, baseball gloves in hand, cleats on their feet, Tzizits dangling from their waists and curling Payots falling from their helmets angelically framing their faces? Talk about an attention getter! All it takes is one look to not only get the gist of the film, but laugh out loud. And that’s exactly what the Brooks Brothers give us – a baseball team put together with divine intervention by the big man upstairs (and I don’t mean George Steinbrenner).
Led by Rabbi Meyer, a man with no knowledge of baseball whatsoever, he coaches the group of equally unskilled misfits with a Baseball for Dummies/How to Play Baseball manual tucked under his arm. A rather rotund man with a cheery upbeat disposition, it’s a comedic sight to see the Rabbi feverishly flip pages while frantically gesturing to his players with stilted frenetic movements and sweat dripping from his brow. But let’s face it, with only one player on the team with any honed skills or knowledge of the game, it’s gonna take more than prayer to get this team going. Thankfully, there’s the team captain, Elliot. A former MLB player, Elliot traded himself from a ball club to God’s club and now tries to meld his two passions – religion and baseball – with THE YANKLES. But Elliot also knows the team is going to need a miracle if it’s to survive. Enter Charlie Jones.
Ex-boyfriend of Elliot’s sister and ex-major leaguer, Charlie has been in a bit of a personal slump. With repeated DUI offenses and considered a “has been”, Charlie needs his own miracle if he’s going to turn his own life around. So how about begrudgingly blending community service with coaching THE YANKLES?
With sub-plots of faith, relationships, redemption and the age old bonding of fathers and sons over baseball, THE YANKLES is refreshingly upbeat, thanks in large part to the chemistry of the cast. Brian Wimmer knocks it out of the park as Charlie Jones. Bringing his own infectious brand of heart and charm to the role, Wimmer shines both when interacting with the team and in effortlessly moving through his character’s arc toward understanding, acceptance and personal redemption. And his natural athleticism only adds to the authenticity of the performance. He is a joy to watch.
A real surprise, and I have to say, my favorite performance in the film, comes from Kenneth Brown. A relative unknown outside of Utah, Brown steals the show as Rabbi Meyer. Looking very much like Santa Claus, his earnest devotion to the players, to Charlie, to God and to baseball elicits appreciative laughter at every turn.
After his performance as Elliot, look to see more of Michael Buster in the coming years. In possibly his biggest role to date, Buster is a delight at conveying lightness and drama, with his character serving as the communications conduit between Charlie and THE YANKLES. In a surprise casting move, Don Most is Elliot’s father, Frank. Known best as the perpetual prankster Ralph Malph on “Happy Days”, Most does heavy dramatic lifting in the strained father-son relationship between Elliot and Frank, as a father who can’t come to terms with his son choosing God over baseball.
Not to be overlooked are some memorable moments from Jesse Bennett who tackles the role of The Rebbe, head of the Yeshiva. Imparting wisdom through parables, Bennett is the calm in the eye of the storm as you head into the bottom of the ninth with the game tied, bases loaded, two out and the batter facing a full count. Elegant understanding.
Casting for acting as opposed to baseball ability, stunt doubles were ultimately used in some of the baseball scenes. “It was a challenge because there was only one of them [Gavin Bentley] that had any kind of baseball experience.” And although the actors had athletic ability, shooting in 29 days total with only 5 days to shoot all the baseball scenes, there wasn’t enough time for training.
As opined by co-writer Zev Brooks, “there’s two elements to this movie. There’s the Jewish side – particularly the orthodox Yeshiva side – and there’s the baseball side.” With their own father a Yeshiva rabbi, Zev and David Brooks (who co-writes and directs) were very comfortable with the Jewish aspect of the story and wanted to make the film so as “not offensive to members of the Jewish faith but just the opposite; portray the values inherent in Judaism.” On the flip side of the coin, they “wanted to make a commercial film that everyone could enjoy…bringing in the baseball story.”
Admitting a film like THE YANKLES “is a lot to take on for first time screenwriters”, according to co-writer Zev Brooks, “we knew when we sat down to write the script that the concept was good…the challenge for us was to [then] write a film that would have broad appeal and to write a film that had humor but at the same time was an uplifting and realistic portrayal of the Jewish culture as we portrayed it in the Yeshiva, and not be preachy or dogmatic.” Letting the collision of cultures organically collide, the humor easily flows like a loping grounder up the middle, and then at times, hits it out of the park when religion and baseball fuse as one. Particularly funny are scenes with Charlie learning Yiddish alternatives for his profanity laden vocabulary. Notable is that director David Brooks relies more on his visuals than on the dialogue to effectuate some of the funniest and most endearing aspects of the film.
Interestingly, the Brooks brothers mandated “that people stuck to the script. We spent a long time on these words…they have a certain rhythm. We didn’t want any ad-libs…except for, if the actor had an idea. [If] David thought it was worth shooting, we would at least get it on film and work on it in the editing room. We had some very pleasant surprises with some of those ideas the actors had.”
Much like a baseball team, THE YANKLES is not just filled with heart. It has depth and layers within its various elements, which bring the drama and deeper meaning to the film beyond the obvious laughter. But for every hit, there is also a miss, as THE YANKLES has its own share of errors, most notably some anti-Semitic bar scenes that fall flat and which even I found to be offensive. The most glaring mis-step, however, lies in the film’s length. There’s about 20 minutes too much of film that feels like an over-extended rain delayed 7th inning stretch, taking you out of the moment and causing the film to lose pacing and energy. And having spoken at length with co-writer, Zev Brooks, I have to attribute this in large part to the unflinching stalwart position of the Brooks brothers to stand on their script as written. Merely because the words or descriptive text is on the page doesn’t mean one it works within the totality of the circumstance. But despite these balks, at the end of the day, one has to say, “Thank heaven for baseball and THE YANKLES.” Play Ball!
Charlie Jones – Brian Wimmer
Sledge Dixon – Bart Johnson
Frank Dubs – Don Most
Elliot Dubs – Michael Buster
Rabbi Meyer – Kenneth F. Brown
Directed by David R. Brooks. Written by David R. Brooks and Zev Brooks.
