Called third strike? The Quitter (Bad baseball movies)

As I said before, I’ll watch just about any movie that has baseball as one of the key words in its description. But that doesn’t mean I’ll watch it ’til the end. Life’s too short.

I came across The Quitter by accident when I checked what my local public TV station was airing for the Saturday late-night flick. It was an independent film, so right away you can be sure that there are certain elements that will be different from your major studio release. Not necessarily better or worse, just different. Of course, such a film is right up the demographic for PTV viewers.

The premise isn’t exactly revolutionary: According to the IMDB blurb,

When a failed baseball player’s ex-girlfriend moves back to the neighborhood with her seven-year-old daughter, he realizes he carries more regrets than how he handled his baseball career.

In other words, a redemption story. Not unlike Where Hope Grows, which I reviewed recently. Pretty standard stuff: former sports figure (athlete/coach/agent, etc.), with or without a substance abuse or other problems, realizes there’s “more to life” and rehabilitates accordingly.

At this point — I’m about half-way through — The Quitter qualifies as my choice for one of the worst “baseball” movies (because, just as in baseball fiction, the theme is seldom about the sport, per se).

Matthew Bonifacio — who also directed and produced, not unusual for indy projects — plays Jonathan Lembo, the failed athlete in question. In this role at least, Bonifacio has zero personality as he somehow makes a living operating a batting cage business that seems to have very few patrons.

Georgie — the “woman he wronged” — is played by Julianna Gelinas Bonifacio. It’s not that she has no personality; she has a terrible personality. Given the fact that Jonathan unknowingly left her with a child, I guess the antipathy in her relationship with him is understandable. That she is actually married to Matthew makes their lack of on-screen chemistry even more distressing.

The only performer who has any spark is the ballplayer’s mom, played  by Deirdre O’Connell. The rest supporting characters are almost uniformly quirky. Are they even professional actors? Maybe they’re stars in the indy world, I couldn’t tell you. The dialog is often out of  sync (i.e., too much silence when there should be speaking). The screenplay is similarly uninspiring and the soundtrack manipulative.

The critique from the Hollywood Reporter certainly isn’t encouraging. Upshot: “[D]espite its admirable elements, The Quitter, like its titular character, seems to give up before it ever gets going.” Of course, others may disagree; it received a 67% from the audience on Rotten Tomatoes, although there weren’t enough from critics to merit a score on the  Tomatometer. “Low-key” was a term which appeared in a couple of reviews, but there’s a difference between “low-key” and “comatose.”

But even as I write this, I feel compelled not to quit The Quitter, just to give it the benefit of the doubt, just in case. Based on the trailer — which includes scenes I haven’t seen yet  — you can tell that tell a lot about the rest of story: Boy had girl and lost her. Boy tries to win her (and child, who doesn’t know he’s her dad) back. Things seem to be going well until something happens to mess it up. Surprise: happy ending. The end. Sorry if you think this was a spoiler.

Tagged as: baseball movie, The Quitter