"The Phenom" is the story of a young major league pitcher - Hopper Gibson - struggling with a mental block that has negatively affected his control. He is sent to the minor leagues and sees a sports paychologist, who digs through his past.
Baseball movies are among some of my most favorite movies. It's a game that plays out very well on film, naturally carrying several themes about teamwork, pressure, isolation and fatherhood to name a few. Even not-so-good baseball movies are still enjoyable if the baseball is done right. If this was an attempt to try and be "original" in the genre, it was a huge swing and miss (pun intended).
If you're going by the poster and tagline thinking this is a baseball movie you'll be as disappointed as I was. I would argue it's a good thing there wasn't more baseball because what little baseball action that was actually featured was very subpar.
The thought I'm left with after watching this movie is the themes that were left undeveloped and what it could have been. What could have been an in-depth story about overcoming mental barriers was instead a collection of loosely strung together scenes, flat secondary characters that come and go at random and an out-of-place robbery scene that has no context or consequence. What could have been a story about overbearing parents and their impact on a child's future turned out to be a cliché deadbeat dad - played admirably by Ethan Hawk - that shows up randomly to hurl hollow insults at the main character and then disappears. What could have been a unique relationship between a therapist - played by Paul Giamatti - and a patient ended up as extended, dialogue-heavy scenes that never go anywhere.
The defacto climax that occurs with the line "they picked the wrong guy, I'm just a regular kid" is, in and of itself, out of context from the rest of the film. We never see any of his life outside of the context of baseball. Even his interactions with his girlfriend are centered around his baseball career.
Any potential this film may have had are greatly overshadowed by the lack of character development, uneventful plot and generic dialogue. I cannot recommend this film.
Baseball movies are among some of my most favorite movies. It's a game that plays out very well on film, naturally carrying several themes about teamwork, pressure, isolation and fatherhood to name a few. Even not-so-good baseball movies are still enjoyable if the baseball is done right. If this was an attempt to try and be "original" in the genre, it was a huge swing and miss (pun intended).
If you're going by the poster and tagline thinking this is a baseball movie you'll be as disappointed as I was. I would argue it's a good thing there wasn't more baseball because what little baseball action that was actually featured was very subpar.
The thought I'm left with after watching this movie is the themes that were left undeveloped and what it could have been. What could have been an in-depth story about overcoming mental barriers was instead a collection of loosely strung together scenes, flat secondary characters that come and go at random and an out-of-place robbery scene that has no context or consequence. What could have been a story about overbearing parents and their impact on a child's future turned out to be a cliché deadbeat dad - played admirably by Ethan Hawk - that shows up randomly to hurl hollow insults at the main character and then disappears. What could have been a unique relationship between a therapist - played by Paul Giamatti - and a patient ended up as extended, dialogue-heavy scenes that never go anywhere.
The defacto climax that occurs with the line "they picked the wrong guy, I'm just a regular kid" is, in and of itself, out of context from the rest of the film. We never see any of his life outside of the context of baseball. Even his interactions with his girlfriend are centered around his baseball career.
Any potential this film may have had are greatly overshadowed by the lack of character development, uneventful plot and generic dialogue. I cannot recommend this film.