Field of Dreams

I have to admit this is a hard one. As baseball films go I'm not sure this one cracks my top five and yet I always get chocked up with when Kevin Costner asks his dad if he wants to have a catch.
At the center of my ambiguous feelings towards this film is it's star Kevin Costner. It's hard to believe now that there was a time when Costner was one of, if not the biggest star going. From the Untouchables to Avatar's prequel (Dance's with Wolves) to Robin Hood and even JFK it seemed like Costner's films were event films that people talked about long after seeing them. Of course over the last 15 years Costner's work has been spotty at best (I do think Tin Cup is a guilty pleasure movie) and his acting ability has become subject to ridicule.
That leads me to ask the following question, how does Field of Dreams hold up over time? In truth I don't think it holds up very well. There is still a spirit and a love for baseball that resonates throughout the film but something is lost in the pro-hippy vibe and supernatural hijinks's that prompt an Iowa farmer to do one illogical thing after another.
If your not familiar with the film I am sure you have heard the line "if you build it he will come." It is a baseball field and he is Shoeless Joe Jackson. To build the field Roy (Costner) most plow over his crops to make space. What leads to Roy doing this, he doesn't want to grow old like his father did. That act of spontanity leads to Roy being the butt of several jokes as his home and land face foreclosure. With mounting money problems Roy hears the voice again and this time it sends him to Boston to seek out his favorite author. With James Earl Jones in toe Roy heads to Minnesota were he is now able to travel back in time in order to meet a town doctor whose dream is to face a big league pitcher just one time. He brings him back to Iowa with Jones still tagging along and finds his brother-in-law there begging him to sell the land before the bank forecloses the next morning.
Before I go any further I should comment about how old age and cynicism have set in for me and perhaps I shouldn't be so hard on this film. There is a magic here that begs it audience to believe that we all deserve an opportunity to relive a moment in life that we thought we had lost. For Roy that moment is having a catch with his dad. I do look forward to watching this film with my son when he is older to see if it's love for baseball makes the same impression on him as it did for me when I first saw and I hope that afterwords we can go out side and have a catch. And I don't think this is a terrible movie and I admire those who still love it and find it's message endearing. However, I do not look forward to my son being old enough and cynical enough to think the film is ultimately a bit silly which is what I felt when I was watching it again.