Troubled baseball all-star Cory Brand is suspended from his team following a high-profile DUI, and struggles to turn his life around while attending a 12-step program and coaching a youth baseball team in his small hometown. At first, Cory can't wait to wrap up treatment and get back on the diamond. But the more time the reluctant coach spends with his eager young players, the greater his love of the game grows. Meanwhile, as Cory seeks to redeem himself through the grace of God, a long-lost love offers new hope for a better future.

Home Run was released in American theatres April 19 of this year and was released on DVD this past Tuesday. It’s the story of a professional baseball player who is struggling with alcoholism and anger at his father, who was also an alcoholic.

To save his career, he agrees to attend Celebrate Recovery (AA) meetings at a church in his hometown and coach his nephew’s little league team. While in the town, he is forced to face old relationships, deal with his past, and come face to face with the only thing that offers a hope to change – Christ.

I was impressed with the cinematography of Home Run – the scenes were lovely and gave it a really small town feeling. The acting and dialogue for the most part, was also really good. It was high quality and the story was consistently entertaining. I also loved how the message was clearly Biblical, yet, it didn’t knock you over the head with preaching. In fact, the pastor in the movie hardly said anything. Instead, the message was delivered in the testimonies of other Celebrate Recovery attendees.

I appreciated that the message was not “Jesus will fix all your problems immediately” but rather, “Jesus gives us hope and help but you may still struggle.” Maybe more realistic for most people’s lives. The movie had a few confusing scenes that never really got explained. For example, the pastor invites himself over to the hotel room but he never actually goes and nothing more is said about it. And it took a long time before I understood the relationship between the main character and the woman little league coach, as it wasn’t explained properly until the middle of the movie. I also have to say that the baseball player’s agent was a little annoying and her poor acting seemed out of place among all the other really good actors in the show.

Yep, this one was a hit. (pun intended) It’s worth buying! 4.5 stars.