Anyone who watches a pitcher on the mound, steadying himself to throw the ball, wonders about that player’s power of concentration, especially with a stadium of faces and a million unseen fans watching on television. In The Phenom, Hopper Gibson (Johnny Simmons), a much-anticipated rising star of professional baseball, chokes, throwing five wild pitches in one inning. We meet him on the couch of kindly sports psychiatrist Dr. Mobley (Paul Giamatti) as struggles to find his way out from under a heavy mental block.
Written and directed by Noah Buschel, The Phenom is a rarity twice over: a baseball movie with more time spent in conversation than on the field; and an old fashioned Freudian drama whose protagonist is guided through the dark labyrinth of the unconscious by talk therapy. Nowadays, most patients can’t afford to talk about their problems at length and many psychiatrists don’t now how to listen, acting instead as the retail arm of the pharmaceutical industry. But if you’re a sports pro, you can afford the steep hourly rates and if you’re lucky, you’ll get an understanding physician like Mobley, for whom medication is the last resort.
Hopper’s prowess as a pitcher, and his psychological problems, are rooted in childhood. Much of The Phenom consists of long flashbacks from the doctor’s couch to Hopper’s high school years as talent scouts sniffed at the door. Soon enough, we meet dad (Ethan Hawke), an ex-con and failed ballplayer determined to succeed through his son. He drives Hopper with manic sociopathic glee.
Filmed with interesting cinematic flourishes (expanding irises) and capably acted all around, The Phenom is an intriguing film, less for its insights into baseball than the burden of parental expectation gone berserk.
The Phenom
Johnny Simmons
Ethan Hawke
Directed by Noah Buschel
Rated
