Flick Friday: Diminished Capacity

Today's movie is one that you may know nothing about; until a month ago I never heard of it.  Mrs. WW was scrolling through Netflix and stumbled on it and then told me.

This is a movie that is centered around a Cubs baseball card....and I had never heard of it.  How ridiculous is that??  Cubs and baseball cards in the same movie, they are the crux of the movie, and I had never heard of it.

Diminished Capacity was released in 2008, but it was a very small release.  According to IMDb, the movie was out for all of three weekends on four screens.  It's box office total was $21,291.  That seems messed up!  Alfonso Soriano make that much in two innings.

Three weekends on four screens is probably why you never heard of the movie.

So here's the plot:

Cooper (Matthew Broderick), a Chicago journalist, isrecovering from a serious concussion and still having memory issues.  He is asked by his mom to come back home to southern Illinois to help her with

Uncle Rollie (Alan Alda), who is starting to show signs of dementia.  Good son Cooper heads south.

He bumps into his old high school flame and recently-divorced Charlotte (Virginia Madsen).  She's starting her own business and has the opportunity do work for a Chicago company.

Among his crazy ramblings, Uncle Rollie shows Cooper this,

a T206 card in near-mint condition of Frank Wildfire Schulte.  Schulte was a member of the 1908 Cubs and Rollie figures the card is worth a bundle.  His reasoning is that the collectors are all after the big names like Tinker, Evers, Chance, and Brown.  That would make the Schulte card scarce and more valuable.  The card was his inheritance from his father and he's ready to cash it in.  He is thinking a six figure payday.

With Charlotte already heading to Chicago for her business,  Cooper decides to tag along and bring Rollie, too.  They are going to a card show and try to unload the Schulte card.

At the show, they meet up with a frustrated Cub fan/card dealer, along with a

Mr. Mint-type dealer who wants to try to scam the card from Rollie.

So will Rollie sell the card?  Will he get ripped off by Mr. Mint?  Will he get the real value of the card and be able to live comfortable?  Will Cooper get the girl?

Watch the movie to find out for yourself!

The entire movie is centered on Rollie's desire to sell his extremely valuable baseball card. The movie makes several mentions of the great value of the card.  So I did a little checking.

I went to PSA's price guide to see what a T206 Frank Schulte (back view) would cost.

Wow, was I surprised.  Six figures?

Hardly.

Try barely four.  PSA list the price of a 9 Near Mint at $2,750+

Not quite the six figures that Uncle Rollie was looking for.  I would call that a slight major script flaw.  But hey, its not like Hollywood is typically interested in getting all the facts straight.

SInce the movie's got Ferris and Hawkeye, so we can overlook little flaws.

And look at Cooper's boss' office.

See that blue banner on his wall?  I've got the exact same one on the wall in my office!

If you've got Netflix, you should go ahead and watch Diminished Capacity.  You'll enjoy the 90 minutes worth of diversion.

P.S.  Remember Rollie's premise that the Schulte card would be really valuable because collectors snapped up the big boys and forgot about Wildfire?

 

I'm one of those collectors!