Reverse the Curse

Duchovny the director never bothers to ground his melodrama in something that feels real, missing the target on the period in which it’s set and an honest understanding of the people who live and die on the success and failure of their favorite teams.

Duchovny’s smarts are commendable, theoretically, but the movie falls short of compelling. And for all the novelistic details that he packs in, “Reverse the Curse” moves at the pace of a self-defeating snail.

Even though that ending includes an epilogue we could see coming like a hanging change-up right down the middle, you can’t help but choke up...

Has its charms, but the laidback tone ultimately makes the story feel inconsequential rather than well-observed.

Finds fresh life in its nuanced central relationship, charming period details, and a stirring performance from Duchovny — while eliciting well-earned sobs from anyone who can’t help but feel romantic about baseball.

Pretty f*cking good.

Material that likely plays better on the page than on the screen with too many gaps in its logic and ends too flatly to land with the emotional arc it seeks.

Reverse the Curse awkwardly fumbles its attempts to balance sarcasm and sappiness. This comedy/drama has too much phony-sounding and lackluster dialogue in portraying a volatile father-son relationship affected by the 1978 World Series.

Duchovny plays a cantankerous cancer patient, giving new meaning to the term diehard Red Sox fan.

A passion project by Duchovny, this father-son dramedy resorts to some hokey moments to keep its "lie" plot afloat, but its emotions and love of baseball are genuine.