source: The Phenom

The ending is abrupt with so many unanswered questions. The acting is good with a decent story line. If the ending was better I would rate it much higher. As a former ball player I was dissapointed as I could relate to Hopper and really wanted to see how he devoloped with his treatment.

I think this could of been a decent movie. But it has very little to do with baseball. It is about a young prospect who makes it to the show and then struggles. But they never show any of it. It's all implemented. The movie is more about how the guy has a crappy dad who may be the reason the kid is a head case at the time and in a slump. Then the movie just ends with no closing at all. Honestly, there never really seemed to be a point to the movie.

Having just finished Rick Ankiel's book, The Phenomenon, and just finishing this movie, I think it's pretty obvious the plot is based on his story. As mentioned in the FAQ, nobody has come out and said the movie is based on Ankiel but the many similarities are striking and pretty hard to ignore. Here are a few: 1) Ankiel attended Port St. Lucie HS like the main character, 2) Ankiel's dad was crazy, abusive and overbearing. Ankiel even talks about him screaming at and intimidating his HS coaches. He also took credit for Rick's success, 3) Like the movie's main character, Ankiel told people his father was a fisherman and hung drywall, when in reality he was a drug dealer who spent time in prison, 4) The main character in the movie plays in the Atlanta Braves organization, which was Ankiel's favorite team growing up, 5) After he loses his control in the 2000 playoffs, Ankiel moves down to the minors and spends a ton of time with sports psychologist Harvey Dorfman, and they talk a lot about his past with an abusive father. Those are just some of the glaring similarities so it seems pretty obvious this movie was inspired by Rick Ankiel's story. As usual, artistic license has added and changed certain parts of the story but it seems pretty obvious this movie was based on Ankiel's story. I'd consider the overall production below average, in part due to the lack of character development. However, I applaud the ambition for undertaking a difficult and often unspoken aspect of professional sports. The "yips" is a well-known phenomenon in the baseball world, but one that players avoid in daily conversation because of its ability to sneak up on any player at any time, and the emotional toll it takes on its victims. Because this theme seemed to take precedence, I was willing to overlook the main character's unrealistically poor pitching mechanics and the frequent and awkward misuse of baseball terminology. It would have been nice if the movie focused a bit more on the emotional turmoil experienced in the player's personal life as he tries to overcome his affliction. This seems to be a product of the lack of character development. Additionally, I think beginning the movie with various notable events throughout the pitcher's childhood would have provided some more context, added some character development, and provided a good foundation for the rest of the movie.

I probably wouldn't have lasted through this - had one of my favourite AFL players not recently retired at just age 23, citing mental health issues. There are definitely some parallels here. Beyond that, "The Phenom" is a frustrating film to watch. Ethan Hawke successfully portrays one of the most unlikeable guys I've seen on film in ages. Paul Giamatti also puts in a great performance as a sports psychologist. The back and forward emotional banter between Giamatti and Simmons is in a very similar vein to that of Damon and Williams in "Good Will Hunting" - just without the Oscar-worthiness. Johnny Simmons is convincing as the somewhat of an asshole but emotionally vulnerable sports star. None of it seemed to tie together though and the film just went nowhere. It never succeeded as anything more than being a fly-on-the-wall look at a young talented sportsman with emotional difficulties. I also agree with many other viewers, that found the ending abrupt and poorly written.

Even if you dont like baseball you could still appreciate this picture about an aspiring young baseball talent who has lost his confidence at his game and isnt able to throw winning curve balls anymore. Having already signed a million dollar contract this baseball kid is under tremendous pressure to perform. Enter Paul Giamatti as a mental coach who is appointed to get the kid's winning streak back. Will he succeed or will he fail? I wont tell. The Phenom is in nothing comparable to other sport movies. Baseball is just an excuse to let two people talk on screen with eachother about FEELINGS. Everything in this movie takes its time. As if the movie itself reflects the rut the baseball kid is in. Slow scenes, many pauses. Many widely spun out scenes about relationships. Not at all a sports movie. If you expect a cool,fast movie about a baseball hero, you will be disappointed. If you wanna see how sportheroes mentally can struggle with loosing, then this is the movie for you. It is a movie about a young kids own mindgames: thoughts he throws at himself and keep hurting again and again. Man is one's own worst enemy and this sweet baseball kid is struggling to deal with that. 10 points for realism and originality. Less points for the drama. Âverage of a well deserved 8. This movie about coping with loosing is a winner! I want to dedicate a special paragraph to producer, writer and director Noah Bushel. This young man has achieved something very unique: he has written EVERYONE of his directed movies! Few great directors have achieved that. I urge you to look at his other work too, because of his total control over his own movies. Everytime he produces something it is unique. Very interesting director of whom we certainly will see more surprising movie gems!

My oh my, what the heck do you think the film makers were going for here? There's a lot of subtext going on but the story doesn't bring any of it together in any sort of meaningful way. I get the whole business about the kid Hooper (Johnny Simmons) having doubts about himself, the father (Ethan Hawke) trying to live vicariously through his son's ability, and the shrink's (Paul Giamatti) attempt to draw young Hooper out to confront his personal demons, but man, what a poor attempt at a story. The most frustrating thing about Hooper was that he seemed to be completely oblivious as a human being. His frequent sessions with Dr. Mobley (Giamatti) seemed to be spent laughing off the doctor's questions or challenging the doc himself as if he were running the therapy session. As for Hooper, Senior, he looked like a real picture of ambition imparting his words of wisdom to a son who couldn't or wouldn't stand up for himself in the face of the old man's insults and put-downs. The drug smuggling rap was just the icing on the cake for me. The guy actually did have a point about staying focused on the pitcher's mound and trying to intimidate opposing batters, but with all that valuable insight, how did he wind up being such a dirt bag? On top of all that, the movie doesn't really even have too much to do with the game of baseball when you come right down to it. There are a few scenes of Hooper throwing the ball but no actual game situations to test the man's mettle. For a better treatment of a baseball pitcher in a somewhat similar situation, try going all the way back to 1957's "Fear Strikes Out", a true story of Jimmy Piersall's struggle with mental illness and a domineering father for whom his son's triumphs were never good enough. Of more recent vintage, Clint Eastwood's "Trouble With the Curve" also has some merit, but deals more with a dysfunctional relationship between a father and daughter with a baseball backdrop.

I watched this movie because it's a baseball movie, and because Paul Giamatti is in it. Script? Sorry to report this, but the writing is BAD. The script--- the words these actors are forced to say as the camera rolls---are not believable. They don't sound like things real people in real life would say. And there's too many of them. Way too many. Result? BORING. Where's some action? ANY action? The baseball scenes add up to about 90 seconds total. Ethan Hawke's character? The mean father? So over the top it is, again, completely unconvincing and irritating. And there's no ending, really. Whoever wrote this....ughh. To pour salt in the wound, the soundtrack sucked. You don't have a noisy rock song with LOUD SINGING playing under a major speech from one of the characters. There should be an instrumental, or no music at all, as the character is screaming at another character. So to sum it up in one word, "The Phenom" is a PHLOP.

As my first experience with a film from writer/director Noah Buschel, I worry that his five earlier efforts also exhibit a sore lack of editing. Did not spot any editor credit (other than that of an assistant or something) and believe Noah Buschel handled it himself. He seems unable to discard anything he films (a lesson all great directors learn to do). Cast is fine, but scenes don't join together for a unified whole and often reach points of stagnation as well as present conflicts of information.

"The Phenom" is the story of a young major league pitcher - Hopper Gibson - struggling with a mental block that has negatively affected his control. He is sent to the minor leagues and sees a sports paychologist, who digs through his past. Baseball movies are among some of my most favorite movies. It's a game that plays out very well on film, naturally carrying several themes about teamwork, pressure, isolation and fatherhood to name a few. Even not-so-good baseball movies are still enjoyable if the baseball is done right. If this was an attempt to try and be "original" in the genre, it was a huge swing and miss (pun intended). If you're going by the poster and tagline thinking this is a baseball movie you'll be as disappointed as I was. I would argue it's a good thing there wasn't more baseball because what little baseball action that was actually featured was very subpar. The thought I'm left with after watching this movie is the themes that were left undeveloped and what it could have been. What could have been an in-depth story about overcoming mental barriers was instead a collection of loosely strung together scenes, flat secondary characters that come and go at random and an out-of-place robbery scene that has no context or consequence. What could have been a story about overbearing parents and their impact on a child's future turned out to be a cliché deadbeat dad - played admirably by Ethan Hawk - that shows up randomly to hurl hollow insults at the main character and then disappears. What could have been a unique relationship between a therapist - played by Paul Giamatti - and a patient ended up as extended, dialogue-heavy scenes that never go anywhere. The defacto climax that occurs with the line "they picked the wrong guy, I'm just a regular kid" is, in and of itself, out of context from the rest of the film. We never see any of his life outside of the context of baseball. Even his interactions with his girlfriend are centered around his baseball career. Any potential this film may have had are greatly overshadowed by the lack of character development, uneventful plot and generic dialogue. I cannot recommend this film.