A baseball legend almost finished with his distinguished career at the age of forty has one last chance to prove who he is, what he is capable of, and win the heart of the woman he has loved for the past four years.
On the field, Costner is consistent, but his exploration of Billy's romantic dilemma is superficial and often wooden.
– Desmond Ryan,
Philadelphia Inquirer,
8 May 2014
rotten:
The baseball sequences are fabulous, not least because Costner looks and moves like a real player a rarity for actors in sports movies... But the love story, a five-year off-and-on affair, is little more than a sop to Costner's romantic faithful.
– Jack Mathews,
New York Daily News,
8 May 2014
rotten:
Here are two things that definitely don't go together: baseball and piano music.
– Stephen Hunter,
Washington Post,
8 May 2014
rotten:
This is no perfect -- or even half-perfect -- game. It's another movie where conventions are subbed for life lessons, where the emotions are cued by golden oldies and where the motivation (at least on the studio's part) isn't love of the game but money.
– Michael Wilmington,
Chicago Tribune,
8 May 2014
rotten:
For Love of the Game asks whether the same qualities that make an athlete a champion don't also destroy his happiness. The answer, unfortunately, is long-winded and redundant... But some of the baseball scenes are good.