Called third strike redux

February 11, 2016

Spoiler alert:

This entry will discuss the end of The Quitter, which I blogged about in the previous entry. On the other hand, I consider this as saving you a few bucks and/or 90 minutes of your valuable time. You’re welcome.

Against my better judgment, I watched The Quitter to its stunning conclusion. I have to admit I was wrong in at least one of my predictions: There was no “happy ending.”

After all the BS Georgie put Jonathan through, after all the time he spent getting to know the daughter he never knew he had, after all the relationship repair he tried to do, Georgie decides she and Luka will be going back to Florida, where they had been living since Luka was born. Whhhaaaaaaa?

But have no fear: Jonathan can always fly down to Florida during the winter, when his batting cages and mini-golf aren’t making any money, right? And she and Luka can always come back to Brooklyn during the summer, because she can just take off a couple of months from the job that rehired her.

-__-

Here are some observations I wrote down while watching the last half of the film:

  • When the cages are open, they must be very lucrative because Jonathan drives a Lexus.
  • Jonathan boasts to Georgie that Luka hit the ball at the cages. Georgie, who has been keeping his identity a secret says in front of the child that she can’t hit a ball so Luka must have gotten her athletic abilities from him. Maybe she thinks Luka can’t t understand the genetic reference.
  • Grumpy Georgie relents to attend a party through by her very oddball neighbors (are they married? living together?) who convince her to carry around a baby monitor so she can leave Luka alone at night. They further convince her to try cocaine for the first time, which turns her into a complaining chatterbox. In a later scene, the male partner of the neighbors (played by Neal Jain, who’s also one of the producers) hits on Georgie. Ick.
  • Luka picked up Jonathan’s phone after they drove by his parents’ house and spoke to Jonathan’s mom. Later he tells his folks about Luka and mom acts amazed. She doesn’t put it together that she had just spoken to the girl — who had identified herself as Luka?
  • Jonathan’s dad is an a**hole, telling him he’ll quit on Georgie and Luka just like he quit on everything else, setting up the obligatory moments of introspection. Jonathan was supposed to call Georgie but he’s engrossed in hitting balls at the cage so she calls him. Getting no answer, she jumps to conclusions that he’s is still a selfish bastard. He shows up at her apartment and she breaks down in tears, telling him it won’t work. He walks off, she chases him, and they kiss and make up.
  • The final scene takes place at a game with some of Jonathan’s buddies, an event in which the ex-professional refused to participate. The last shot — after Georgie informs him about the Florida plan — has him up at bat. What do you think he does? Home run? You may be right. Don’t know. The screen cuts to black. Roll credits.

So as of this moment, I nominated The Quitter for consideration of one of the all-time worst baseball movies.

****

Next on the queue: A Mile in His Shoes, a 2011 feature about a young pitcher with Asperger starring Dean Cain, based on The Legend of Mickey Tussler by Frank Nappi. (Here’s my review of the 2008 title.) I always get the feeling pointing out the flaws in a movie like this is like being anti-puppies.

 

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