Reverse the Curse

I found myself bored through much of this movie. I thought it moved at a snail's pace and was filled with too much meaningless dialogue. In addition to those issues, I was thrown off by the unbelievability of a central plot point, a hoax perpetrated by an adult son to lift the spirits of his dying father, a diehard Boston Red Sox fan played by David Duchovny. I almost threw in the towel on this one, but I'm glad I hung in there because I very much enjoyed the final twenty minutes or so. A movie's ending can greatly affect your overall experience, and in this case, it made Reverse the Curve at least a worthwhile watch for me.

Could have titled this review Home Run or Third Base or something, but figured those titles should be taken. The New York Times didn't fully do their research, missing a positive tipping point in Duchovny's work. RTC AKA BUCKY was a screenplay long before it was a book. The book came from the frustration David experienced trying to get the film made. It took so long that he went from playing the son, with great actors interested in playing the dad, to him, David, playing the dad. This is only one of the delicious tidbits that make up this meal of a movie. RTC is a unique blend of fantasy and reality. It goes way beyond the fantasy the guys try to create for Marty. It's a hopeful reality piece about the healing of relationships & how long it can take to understand our own behavior. Maybe death has to be present as a witness in order for us to finally feel safe doing so. It's about marrying your dream girl and having great kids with her, even though you made some mistakes early on that might have made her hate you and/or write you off. From mistakes in facial hair to the non-trivial variety. It's about the balance of the things in life that make you want to live forever and the things that make you want to give up. It's about how sports don't really matter, but how indeed they do. It's about people. Of any era. It's a study in flaws and about the coexistence of good and bad. It's about how even if we root for one team, we can't help but see the value in some of the players in the opposing team. And how we embody all of that. Plus REVERSE THE CURSE has a ton of Duchovny-brand humor, some baseball, some history presented correctly & oops tinged with fantasy. And it's got a kick-ass song at its beautiful surprise close. Find the couple of hours to treat yourself.

Reverse the Curse was a film I desperately wanted to love. I'm a huge fan of David Duchovny's acting, writing, & directing, and have read the source material (his own "Bucky F*ing Dent" novel) from which this is based. Sadly, Reverse the Curse didn't emotionally connect with me in the same way the book did.

For a very basic overview, this movie tells the story of Ted Fullilove (Logan Marshall-Green)--a 1970s Yankee Stadium peanut-vendor who gets the dreaded call that his quasi-estranged, Red Sox-rooting father Marty (Duchovny) is dying. As the two awkwardly reconnect, they discover that a shared interest in baseball may help the relationship flourish in its final weeks.

In a sense, Reverse the Curse is a relatively straightforward "strained father/son relationship" flick. As writer, director, & producer, Duchovny definitely puts his unique comedic/philosophical touches on the material and one can tell he is genuinely trying to create real emotion (even often through the lens of Californication-like comedy).

But overall, the experience largely comes up short in two distinct categories:

First, this is a period piece (1970s) that doesn't seem like it whatsoever. Perhaps budgetary restrictions are the main culprit, but I never felt absorbed into 70s culture like I should have been.

Also--and most egregious--is the puzzling lack of baseball content in the film. While by no means a "baseball movie" at heart, Reverse the Curse puts forth surprisingly little mention of baseball whatsoever until the final act. In the novel, I remember the Marty/Ted relationship being defined by baseball and more material of Teddy at Yankee Stadium. That isn't the case in the cinematic version--and I think it is sorely missed.

As such, I have to cap my ranking of Reverse the Curse at 6/10 stars. Though featuring a strong setup and genuine heart behind the entire project, it seems a bit too much was "lost in translation" in the book-to-screen adaptation process.

I'm trying to think of some lame baseball reference to sum up this movie. Passed Ball, maybe. Balk. Foul out. Hit by pitch. These choices don't really get there.

Neither did the movie.

I was rooting for it. I really was.

The baseball part of it was barely part of the plot. And there were so many holes in the idea (no spoilers) they became hard to ignore. It's a comedy. There is some length here. Some times it was really strained.

And lots of scenes that didn't reveal anything, didn't raise the stakes, didn't move the plot. There was never much tension about what might happen. The scene in the trailer with the two leads standing naked together -- what was that for? You could go out to for more popcorn and you wouldn't have missed much except for a vague dick joke.

So many pitches fouled off.

It felt like there were a lot of choices made just to keep the budget low. Best example was the finale. Meh. Also hard to believe. There are no Red Sox fans in New Jersey. :-)

Great acting. Production values fine. I loved the Yankees fan kid.

Hard to get behind this team.

I was lucky enough to catch this movie at the Glasgow film festival. The basic story is an estranged son comes back into his fathers life after a cancer diagnosis. It sounds like it could be a little depressing, quite the opposite. It has many light hearted moments,and some down right hilarious ones. The theatre was laughing practically throughout the entire movie. David & Logan have great chemistry and work well as the father son duo with a matching sarcastic humour. The more dramatic scenes are brilliant too, they appear more toward the end. The movie has a lot to offer, I laughed, I cried, I left the cinema completely satisfied. A Beautifully charming heart warming little movie. Well done to David for the great writing, and Logan Marshall-Green for always delivering a steller performance .