This is a strong character study. I really enjoyed it, but it is not a sports movie, at least not what one thinks of a typical sports movie. Strong acting throughout elevate this from being a pretty run of the mill character study. I really enjoyed hating the Ethan Hawke character. At times I thought the character was slightly over the top, but I still liked it. Worth watching. Just a word of warning, if sports movies are your favorite genre, you may want to reset your expectations a bit before watching. You will probably enjoy it more.

Major League Pitcher Hopper Gibson (Johnny Simmons) is sent down to the minors because he lost his pitching mojo. He is assigned to Dr. Mobley (Paul Giamatti) a renowned sports psychologist. Hopper's overbearing father Hopper Sr (Ethan Hawke) makes his presence known as he just out of prison. So I see the title and jump at this movie hoping to see something like Roy Hobbs (from the Natural) in earlier days. Didn't happen. This is a talk- fest and I am not sure we got all of the movie or the script or something that would make sense of this. The ending came so quickly without anything being resolved that I had a hard time figuring this out. Maybe you will have better luck, but truth be told I advise all to stay away. There are many uncomfortable scenes with Hopper and Hopper Sr, who is not physically abusive, but is verbally abusive and his son just quietly takes it. At a family dinner with Hopper's girl friend Rachel (Marin Ireland) the music was so annoyingly loud to a point we could barely hear what was being said. Ethan Hawke (following his part of the script) is okay but we don't like seeing this abusive side of anyone. Paul Giamatti as Dr. Mobley tries too hard with unnecessary facial expressions. There are a couple sub plot that don't go anywhere.This appears to be half of a movie, a script or some kind of a half-told story to help Hopper get his mojo back. We do not see any real baseball games or parts of. We do see Hopper on the mound, at times, looking lethargic or out of focus. Just so you know: this is an under-developed story the way I saw it. Good luck with it. (2/10)Violence: No. Sex: No. Nudity: No. Language: Yes, at times, not much but there.

"It doesn't matter what I want cause I have a contract, and you know what, I'll tell you something. They picked the wrong guy because I'm just an ordinary kid." Hopper (Simmons) is a star baseball pitcher that has recently been demoted after a shaky outing. He is sent to psychologist Dr. Mobley (Giamatti) in hopes of him figuring out what is wrong. When Hopper begins to talk about his overbearing father (Hawke) Mobley begins to understand what Hopper's problem is. But it may be too late. I am a huge sucker for all sports movies and I love Paul Giamatti so I was really excited about watching this. I have to say though this is nothing like I expected. At the risk of over simplifying, the movie is basically a baseball player version of Good Will Hunting. Simmons actually plays the part perfect as a kid who isn't sure what he wants anymore and is essentially going though the motions while his dad tries to totally control him. I could keep going on about this but if you liked Good Will Hunting I would recommend this as well. Overall, not what I expected, it was better. I give this a B+.

This is a slow movie so if you are looking for a baseball movie with excellent plays, this is not what you are going to get. This is pure dialog with psychological upbringing playing a major role in the protagonists head.I'll keep this short, this movie is about a good kid who is barely out of high school and has an incredible skill at pitching. He's a phenom, a boy genius with a ball in his hand.The movie is about all the pressures that a young man goes through when he has a gift even he has yet to truly understand and control. He undergoes struggling with it and begins to question his talent, his beliefs and all that he was taught about pitching. This is a movie for someone who wants to put themselves in the position of someone who is struggling to nurture what he/she naturally is talented at. The protagonist has pitchers block, many of us have a type of block in our life that we struggled to get through or failed to get through.