For less than than 15 minutes, this Internet Movie manages to take us back to the time when baseball makes for parent and child bonding. Hallie Kate Eisenberg, best known as the little girl in those Pepsi commercials, stars as Abbey, a little girl whose life revolves around her single father (Benjamin King) and America's Number One pastime. Together, they eat, sleep and breathe baseball. Unfortunately, her love of the game is greater than her ability to bat or in Abbey's own words "focus on the ball."
Abbey's fascination with the Nutcracker video arrives, that subtle turning point when a girl begins to desire girlie stuff and not boy stuff. In a tender moment before going to sleep, Abbey admonishes her dad "to do the Dad stuff; not the Mom Stuff."
Dad, still unable to break through, goes on playing both parent roles. But he eventually learns to let go of his own plans for his daughter, maybe realizing that he happens to have a daughter, not a son. What happens to Abbey, however, and the way she reacts to all these new developments really shine through. Well, this Pepsi girl has not disappointed me yet.
Putting her in a baseball movie reminds me of young Tatum O'Neal roughing it out with the men in the playing field and eventually winning an Oscar pitch. Remember that? From the way Hollywood is treating Hallie Kate Eisenberg these days, it appears that she'll soon be the next toast of the town. I also watched this remarkable young actress in a Disney adaptation of Hellen Keller's life and she was just great in that role!
Wonder how this girl does it, and survives Hollywood's hothouse effect, where kids are being forced to grow up fast in keeping with the Celluloid Screen's demand for new talent. I remember this happening to Brooke Shields; Shirley Temple; and, to a certain extent, Michael Jackson.
I could just imagine how hard it was for Director Kara Harshbarger to bring out the jewels from our little Pepsi girl. At the same, like a responsible parent, I am worried about Hallie Kate's growing pains which you will learn to emphatize with in less than 15 minutes. After watching the film, you kind of ask yourself: "Poor Hallie Kate, I sure hope she grows up like any normal girl his age--enjoy running around the garden; play with her dolls, etc. But maybe that's asking too much?"
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