Reverse the Curse

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.

This film is about three people brought together by one thing, impending death. Marty (David Duchovny) has a fatal illness. Marty's only child, Ted (Logan Marshall-Green) a Peanut slinger. Mariana (Stephanie Beatriz) is Marty's 'Death Nurse' someone who helps make a persons last days a little better. Ted decides to also make Marty's brief future a little better as well. I really enjoyed this film that Duchovny wrote and directed as well. It will make you laugh, feel good, and at times shed a tear or two. The supporting cast was strong as well with Pamela Adlon (Blauner), Jason Beghe (Tango Sam), Evan Handler (Benny), Santo Fazio (Shticker) and Daphne Rubin-Vega (Eva). This film will definitely make you decide to call your Dad especially if you haven't done so in a while.

I finally got to see this movie and it did not disappoint!! From the start and throughout the whole movie I found myself laughing out loud which not many movies make me do that these days. Duchovny also had cool shots and cut aways that added cool elements to the story telling. I loved Duchovny and Logan Marshall together and thought they had seamless chemistry. Stephanie is phenomenal in this and the three really balance each other out very well. The parts that were meant to be touching were and compared to the book I think he did a pretty good job of translating it to a movie. I laughed, I cried and then I laughed some more. David really put his heart into this film and role and it shows!

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.