As uneven as an amateur baseball game, A LEAGUE OF THEIR OWN has a degree of charm which is all but drowned out by sentimental overkill.
Dottie Hinson (Geena Davis) and Kit Keller (Lori Petty) are two sisters recruited to play in the first all-womens' baseball league, formed during World War II to keep the sport alive while much of the male population--including Dottie's husband--are off at war. The sisters are assigned to the
"Rockford Peaches," where their teammates include Marla Hooch (Megan Cavanagh), a slugger whose plain looks are the butt for some of the film's weakest jokes; and Mae Mordabito, a former dance-hall hostess who comes across like a 1940s version of Madonna (not much of a surprise, since that's who
plays her). Tom Hanks plays the team's coach, Jimmy Dugan, a pro player turned pro drinker.
Directed by Penny Marshall (BIG), A LEAGUE OF THEIR OWN sports some fine performances and well-staged ball scenes, but also suffers from serious miscasting and sophomoric humor. It occasionally strives for a kind of gentle feminism in the style of FRIED GREEN TOMATOES, but never follows through on
these half-hearted gestures.
