It's pretty good. It definitely goes out of its way to subvert every expectation you might have about a baseball movie, and is structured in a way where most of the actors only get one or two two-hander sequences opposite leading man Johnny Simmons (who's incredibly impressive, by the way). Ethan Hawke and Paul Giamatti fair best as their characters are easily the most interesting. The ending is also fantastic and incredibly satisfying. Worth seeing. B

Recruited out of high school, gifted major-league baseball player Hopper Gibson (Johnny Simmons) begins throwing wild pitches, precipitating a demotion to a minor-league team and mandatory visits to a sports psychologist (Paul Giamatti). During therapy, Gibson reflects on his estranged relationship with his father (Ethan Hawke), an in-and-out-of-prison drug dealer who conditioned and disciplined his son to the point of trauma. There is a fascinating and poignant film within The Phenom, but it is obscured by narcotized pacing (the type of self-conscious art-house slow designed to tease and test audiences), peculiar stylistic decisions, and a type of claustrophobia I would regularly associate with a filmed play.

Hawke is sensational in his four or five scenes; with a macho flat-top haircut and a sleeve of tattoos, he creates a convincing and frightening portrait of a petulant man who projects his own failures and shortcomings onto his son and then abuses him under the guise of training. Giamatti is also very solid in a role reminiscent of Robin Williams' in Good Will Hunting: a sensitive, yet probing and tough veteran therapist paired with an angrily introverted patient. When the film simply lets these actors play, it is riveting. Alas, the lion's share of its (abruptly ending) 90 minutes is devoted to odd tangents or interminable stretches of staring-into-space mood building, and the dialogue often sounds phony as it whiplashes between profane and self-consciously literary. And though this is no doubt a point of pride for the film, focused as it is on a psychodrama of words and silences, the almost total absence of any baseball action is not an asset. We are never vividly shown the protagonist's frequently debated triumphs and humiliations on the diamond, and this only further distances us from his plight.

C

Ethan Hawke was easily the best thing about this movie. Loved every minute he was onscreen, but other than that it's pretty forgettable.