The Slugger's Wife movie review (1985)

In the good old days, this would have been material for a great light comedy, maybe starring James Stewart or Dan Dailey. But Simon won't leave well enough alone. He turns the outfielder (Michael O'Keefe) into a brooding, pathologically jealous, possessive, insecure case study. And he makes the woman (Rebecca De Mornay) into a serious, independent, liberated career woman who needs time to grow and be herself.

That would be a terrific combination for a made-for-TV potboiler on the hang-up of the week. It doesn't mix very well with baseball. For that matter, the baseball in this movie is pretty unconvincing, too. Every time O'Keefe slams a homer, he stands there at the plate, grinning foolishly at his girl in the stands, instead of doing what any normal young man would do, which is to run like hell in the direction of first base.

The movie has a couple of scenes that really don't work. One of them involves a scheme by the wise old manager (played by director Martin Ritt) to convince O'Keefe that De Mornay still loves him. O'Keefe is in a hospital bed, half out of his mind, and Ritt and a couple of the players come in with a girl they've recruited to play the wife. She stands in the shadows and says all the right things, and O'Keefe seems temporarily taken in, which is more than we can say. This sort of scene belongs in the very worst sort of TV sitcom. It doesn't belong in a movie where we're supposed to believe it.

All of my objections aside, let me say that O'Keefe is good in this movie and De Mornay is more than good. In her first movie since "Risky Business," she has a couple of scenes where she's so sweet, and earnest, and believable, that you wonder what would happen if she ever used that energy in a screenplay that deserved it. I guess we're going to have to wait for the answer to that question.

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