Sugar - 3 stars

This is an interesting movie. It starts at a baseball training camp in the Dominican Republic. Sugar is one of many people hoping to make it in American baseball. After the first 20 minutes or so, the movie shifts to America. We see Solo as he is sent to a training facility in Phoenix. He doesn't speak a word of English. The only thing he knows how to order at a restaurant is french toast.

Later he is sent to play for a small team in Iowa. The team has the players stay with local families. Sugar stays on a farm with a kindly old couple. This section is my favorite part of the movie. The couple don't speak any Spanish, but they try. They are the kind of people that repeat everything slowly, as if that will help him to understand. They follow the local team fanatically and they offer him advice about how to improve his game.

They also have a daughter who befriends Sugar. He thinks she may be interested in him, but she really just wants to be his friend. She also wants to get him to join her friends in their church group.

The movie takes a couple of other turns. I liked the way you don't know where the movie is going. Its not leading up to a big game or anything like that. In fact, there is not that much baseball in this movie. When we do see a baseball scene, we don't even care which team is winning. We are just focusing on Sugar and how he is adapting to life in America. The movie is really about what its like to be a stranger in a strange land, and we have no trouble relating to Sugar.

I enjoyed this movie a lot.