FIELD OF DREAMS [1989] review

I have heard FIELD OF DREAMS called a “new classic,” but I wouldn’t got that far. Having never seen the movie, its premise and a few of the lines from the movie were of course very well know to me, i.e. “If you build it, he will come.” I found, however, the execution of this premise to be a little bit too light and automatic. I didn’t really want an explanation for how he heard the voices or where the players go when they walk back into the cornfield, but I would have liked the buildup to take a bit longer. Within like five minutes the field is already built. And I would have liked the magic to be contained to the farm and field itself. The fact Kevin Costner heard voices out at Fenway Park made things a bit silly for me. Also, I never had an opinion either way on how good an actor Costner is. I can see why some people think he is a terrible actor after seeing him in DREAMS. I don’t know exactly what it is, but there’s just something off about his performance, as well as the performance of his wife by Amy Madigan. She just seemed to willing to let him follow these crazy ideas and her whole soapbox speech at the school assembly, that could have been left on the cutting room floor.

DREAMS did evoke a good bit of nostalgia about sports, but also showed that not only modern sports lacked innocence. Controversy and scandal rocked baseball in its infancy as well. What a farm house they have though, up on a bit of a rise, with that huge wraparound porch. A great portrait of the American midwest.

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