Entertainment

BASEBALL DAYS, UNSWEETENED

JUST in time for opening day comes the baseball movie “Sugar,” written and directed by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, the team behind the 2006 sleeper hit “Half Nelson.”

Now they turn their attention to Miguel Santos, a 19-year-old pitching prospect in the Dominican Republic who dreams of playing in Yankee Stadium and buying a Cadillac he can drive on water.

His nickname is “Sugar” because, he explains, “I’m sweet with the ladies, but mostly I’ve got the sweetest curveball around.”

“Sugar” follows the young man’s uphill assault on the big time, including a stint at a

minor-league team in small-

town Iowa, where culture shock kicks in.

Algenis Perez Soto was a baseball player in real life, which helps to explain his sensitive, understated performance as Sugar.

But he’s let down by a manipulative script recycled from dozens of sports and immigrant movies. At least it dispenses with a Hollywood ending.

In Spanish and English, with English subtitles. Running time: 114 minutes. Rated R (sexuality). At the Lincoln Plaza, the Angelika, others.