Sugar (2008)

It is difficult to imagine the hardships faced when one moves to another part of the world, especially when they know nothing about the culture or the language. By 2008, over a quarter of all professional baseball players in America were recruited from South America. "Sugar" tells the story of one young man from the Dominican Republic brought to play for the minor leagues in a small farming community in Kansas.

Miguel "Sugar" Santos is not even 21 when he is asked to leave his family, friends and entire way of living to play baseball. His notoriety at home spread abroad and he is offered a substantial sum, for a person living in the Third World, to do what he does best. Along with several other friends he embarks on his journey to the Land of the Free and Home of the Brave to play the great American pass time. This is not a traditional sports flick though. The game is important, after all it's why he is in the States, but this film is geared more towards exposing the ways in which people from the Spanish-speaking world are picked up, chewed around and spat back out in the world of sport.

It is about home runs, strike outs and ground balls, but only to illustrate the importance of the opportunity for this young man. He is quiet, contemplative and a hard worker. This is not just a chance for him to make it big, but also to help his family in the DR rise above their life of poverty. Every strike out is one step closer to the major leagues, every player walked one closer to a return ticket home.

As much as this movie is about sport it is primarily the story of an immigrant, albeit one of the rarer types. The cultural barriers are big, though not fully explored, but what is bigger is the language block. In Santo Domingo the recruits were taught enough English to play baseball, but all there were given was enough instruction to play the game. Day to day phrases were neglected leaving all of these young to flounder on their own, desperate for something to cling on to. There is a brilliant little scene where Sugar is in an Denny's where he has gone for days on end to eat, always ordering french toast because he doesn't know the words for anything else. One day he takes a leap and orders some eggs, only to be thwarted by the dreaded question "How would you like them?" It's french toast again.

His saga is presented as one of many. Love comes into play though it is never followed through and religious differences keep them apart. He has to get a job as a dishwasher as none of his other skills have set him up for actual employment. What he does is hinged on perfection, so much so that a hurt foot or the benefits of a simple pill could mean the difference between stardom and failure.

This is a lovely little film about new beginnings and finding hope in bad situations. Its a story about maintaining your roots while broadening horizons, being passionate in love and being open to renewal. Many of the various plots go nowhere, but then this is not an A-B type of plot. This is about a man lost in the confusion of a nation more massive then he can wrap his mind around with baseball being that last connection he has to the familiar. It is simultaneously the story of dozens and the story of millions, as the final scene makes painfully clear.

3/4