Ethan Hawke impresses as an abusive father to a major-league rookie pitcher in an intriguing character study thats admirably hard to pin down From its graceful opening credits sequence,which, backed by an elegant classical music score, or fixes the viewer’s gaze on some tasteful wallpaper,writer and director Noah Buschels The Phenom immediately goes out of its way to subvert all the expectations associated with baseball movies.
Despite its rigorously formal leanings, The Phenom is still a film approximately a young man struggling to regain his focus and grow into the athlete he was born to be. But unlike Field of Dreams, and depraved News Bears,Bull Durham and countless other films centered on the sport, The Phenom is more interested in its hero’s psychological trappings than his talents on the field.
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Source: theguardian.com