Director: Noah Buschel
By Alex Watson
Ethan Hawke once again electrifies as one of cinema's most monstrous sports Dad's, but despite the great chemistry between leads, The Phenom is a movie that hard to define. Going well beyond the normal ground for baseball movies, Buschel is more interested in the psychological effects of the player himself. This is not a story of redemption but is more about a young who trying to find his way back to who he once was.
Hopper Gibson (Johnny Simmons) is a talented young pitcher who has begun to struggle. Concerned with this slump his team sends him to a sports psychologist Dr. Mobley (Paul Giamatti). Through these sessions, Mobley gains an insight to the emotional abuse his jailbird father (Ethan Hawke) inflicted on him to win at all costs. Is this the root cause of his problems? Or do things go even deeper?
More of a character study than a movie, The Phenom is still an intriguing piece that asks some serious questions of what pressures young men face on the road to the top. Hopper is ranked as the 3rd best young prodigy in America, but after throwing five wild pitches in one inning people are becoming concerned. Buschel moves in and out of his backstory of growing up in the small Port St Lucie, Florida. Hopper is a big star on his high school team with a beautiful girlfriend (Sophie Kennedy-Clark). But despite the adoration of his peers and his mother, Hopper seems oblivious to it all and seems to be lost within his own world.
The moment that his father, Hopper Sr enters the picture the blue touch paper is truly lit. Once a talented player himself, his life has become wayward and he is now fresh out of prison once again. Immediately abusive to his son by throwing a beer can at his head, Hopper Sr lives his dreams through junior. One scene sees him going banana's at his son during a high school game, then being arrested seconds later. Bitter and cynical of his wasted life, he's become the overly competitive Dad that child dread. Jealous over his son's success, he finds joy in his petty torments and we see a window into the issues that plague the young man.
When Mobley meets with Hopper, these scenes are what confuse the picture because we are not sure whether this is a psychological drama or a father and son study? Still, they hold their own effect as, despite his successes, Hopper remains unconcerned with his plight. Suspicious of all whole surround him, he has found it hard to hold down meaningful relationships and thanks to his father's abuse his love the game has now begun to dissolve. Despite Giamatti being solid, Mobley offers little as a character and feels more like a last minute inclusion. The picture works best when father and son hold the screen together and The Phenom's electricity is built around this.
Johnny Simmons has always been a young talent to watch and in The Phenom he shows precisely why. Doing a fine job of bringing to light Hopper's pessimistic view of the world and wondering just how he fits into it. Simmons does well to show the conflict of his feelings towards his father because bizarrely he might not have been the same without him. Ethan Hawke is a force of nature as Hopper Sr and is very much the driving force of Buschel's movie. Blasting on the screen like a hurricane force, Hawke thrills and frightens us in equal measure whenever he appears. "Everything you've accomplished, you owe to me," he mocks at one stage. Junior will never be free or escape his influence and Hawke makes us feel every second of it.
The performances alone deserve consideration come award season, but Noah Buschel's The Phenom is still a fascination and confusing piece that deserves attention. Sport Dad's take note, this is a picture that will teach you how NOT to raise your kid (if only for the wild pitches!).
