stuvian

As someone who roots for the underdog, I wanted to like this movie as I do all indie films. But I tried and could not. Only the father's character is redeemable. The brothers are obnoxious and unlikable. The plot lacks credible sequences and the jerk brother is a bundle of cliches. It attempts fish out of water dynamics but doesn't succeed. It sharpened my geographical knowledge of rural Minnesota which is probably all I got out this. If I have to reach that far to find something positive to say you should probably steer clear. At an hour and fifteen minutes it was mercifully short so I did make it to the end but that was the only reason I did.

I found The Phenom highly compelling on a lot of levels. It is a family drama, sports movie and a deep psychological dive rolled into one. Apparently, it is based on the life and career of Rick Ankiel whose story I am not familiar with.

The protagonist's relationship with his controlling, abusive and recidivist father drives the plot. The father seeks to instill a warrior mentality in his son buttressed by a mistrust of everyone. The son (a budding baseball star) goes out in to the world testing his dad's philosophy for real world application.

Their relationship is deconstructed by Paul Giamatti's sports psychologist character who the protagonist learns has ghosts of his own.

I enjoyed every performance and the superb sound track. Best of all, was the movie's lack of trite, easy answers. It is a cliche free movie without sappy, Hallmark card conclusions or sentiments.

Douglas' character is avoiding dealing with mortality by sleeping with any and every woman within reach and cutting ethical business corners. In doing so, he wreaks havoc on his career and relationships. He eventually runs out of people to deceive and recognizes late in the game that his path is closing in all around him. While it is hard to feel sorry for him, he has something of an epiphany and realizes he can't cheat time, karma and the families he's destroyed. It is probably too late for redemption but not too late make peace with himself. He stops short of ruining his relationship with one of the last people to admire him in a moment of clarity. A good but sad character study of someone trying to win every interaction in sex and business but destroying his life in the process.