The Phenom

A movie about a talented young pitcher (Johnny Simmons) who abruptly loses the ability to throw strikes. The asks a doctor (Paul Giamatti) to try and figure out what's troubling him. What's troubling him is tied up mostly in his father, Hopper Senior (Ethan Hawke), an abusive drunk trying to live out his self-sabotaged dreams through his son. When he isn't in prison for trying to deal drugs.

At times, it's an interesting movie, if not terribly subtle. Hawke is all slurred insults and cruelty, insisting everything good about Hopper Jr. came from him in one moment, and in the next that the kid is nothing at all. Which, if he did get everything good about himself from his father, would be an accurate statement.

There's a scene where Senior is arrested during one of Junior's games, and as Junior stands on the mound watching his dad get hauled away, the view shrinks to this small circle focused entirely on Senior with everything washed in red flashing lights. All Junior's focus having been drawn to that scene. Trying a little too hard. I think the different postures and places Junior sits during his sessions with the doctor are probably better at indicating where the kid's mind is at.

There are pieces that seem to contradict each other in odd ways. Junior describes how his father said to never show emotion on the mound, because it gives your opponents an advantage (although he also tells Junior to sneer and snarl like Gibson or Clemens, which would be emotion so, you know, bad advice). Except Junior is always on the mound, because everyone is his opponent. The doc circles back around to that near the end to tell him that's an old, old fear that Junior has to put away.

Sounds good, except the movie just had a scene where Junior tried to form a connection with a young woman he met at the hotel the team was staying in, and she and her shotgun-wielding boyfriend then rob Junior. We've seen the reporters running at him like starving dogs at raw meat, shouting questions because they need good copy. These are people who only see Junior as something to exploit, so it would seem to not be a bad idea to regard people as potential "opponents" until they demonstrate otherwise.

This is something Junior is aware of, that people are watching him, waiting to see if he falls apart like his father did, or like any ballplayer who got the yips. That there is an intensity to that attention that bears down on him. Unfortunately, he can't express this at all. The scenes where he tries to do so to his much-better educated and more articulate leftist girlfriend are kind of sad. (I would say she's another exaggerated character, but I was that arrogant and certain of my judgments at that age, so maybe not). She keeps interpreting him talking about what he's dealing with as him on an ego trip. "I can throw hard so I am more special than others." I'm pretty sure he's trying to tell her the weight of expectations, both good and bad, is killing him, but he can't get the point across. So those interactions are frustrating, but effective.