OFF THE BLACK
follows Ray Cook (Nick Nolte), a middle-aged, high school
baseball umpire as he develops an unexpected relationship
with a teenage pitcher. When we first meet Ray, he's
umpiring for the playoffs and makes a call that loses the
game for the hometown team – humiliating the team’s 17
year-old pitcher, Dave Tibbel (Trevor Morgan). Yelled at by
the local parents, despised by the kids, Ray hurries off the
field and drives away.
That night, alone at his home, Ray
makes an odd, elaborate video-diary while sitting at the
dinner table, then falls asleep watching a game on
television. He is awakened by the sound of a car window
being shattered. He grabs a pistol and runs out to see three
men in ski masks standing by toilet-papered trees and a
spray-painted driveway. Two of them escape, but Ray catches
one and drags him at gunpoint inside. The vandal is Dave,
the high-school pitcher. At first, Ray furiously
interrogates the contrite teen. But even in his anger, he
has compassion for him and offers him a way out.
What
starts off as a straightforward exchange – if Dave repairs
the damage, Ray won’t call the cops – turns into something
much more complex, as they each discover in the other
something missing from his own life. When Ray asks Dave to
go to his 40th high school reunion and pretend to be his
son, this benevolent act of deception opens unexpected
dimensions in the two men and changes their lives forever.
© 2006 Think Film Company. All Rights
Reserved.
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