[yasr_overall_rating]
“Curveball” is the coming of age story of a boy named Nolan as he faces several challenges in his life which he must learn to conquer without the help of his mother or counselor.
When setting out to make a movie about high school kids and all of their encompassing teenage angst, make sure to add some moments of levity. Even “Schindler’s List” had occasional moments of buoyancy but director Brandon Thaxton, in his feature film directorial debut, apparently overlooked that tiny detail and as a result, his movie suffers. No matter how serious or depressing your story may be, you need to have intervals of geniality, otherwise, your audience will grow weary of so much discouragement and want to turn off the film. Even in our own lives, during tough times, we always manage a smile, a chuckle or laugh, it helps keep our sanity, and it is human nature.
Nolan (Jean-Luc McMurtry) and Sam (Adam Aalderks) have been best friends since childhood and now they are in high school, getting ready to graduate. Both play on the school’s baseball team and Nolan has an amazing pitching arm and because of it, they have won every game leading up to the finals. Nolan and fellow classmate Rachel (Alexa Rachelle), start dating and life couldn’t be better for him. That is of course, until Sam starts visiting an old friend of his from jail, Spencer (Che Broadway), an ex-con and drug dealer. Through Spencer, Sam introduces Nolan to an assortment of various drugs and while initially reluctant, he gives in to curiosity and slowly, becomes more and more dependent on them.
After Sam dies from an accidental overdose, Nolan holds himself responsible for not protecting him and as he becomes more and more dependent on any drug he can get his hands on, his grades and baseball playing begin to suffer. When his mother Sharon (Cheri Christian), a nurse and single mother who has raised him by herself, realizes what is going on, she tries to have him admitted into rehab but with a waiting list a mile long, she takes matters into her own hands. With no other viable option, she takes him to an old house in the woods and handcuffs him to the wall, determined to get the toxins out of his body before they kill him, with disastrous results.
“Curveball” starts out promising enough, introducing us to Nolan and Sam as young children and then following them into their formative high school years. While Nolan garners all the accolades and attention because of his good pitching arm, it slowly begins to take its toll on Sam, and in a sort of retaliation, he turns to drugs to help him cope. The characterizations, for the most part, are amateur at best. Jean-Luc McMurty as Nolan and Cheri Christian as his mother Sharon, deliver the film’s best performances but that’s not a difficult task, considering that everyone else around them appears to be making their very first film. The story drags and drags and by the time we get to the quintessential finale, and witness the death of a major character, it is at this point that we realize we stopped caring long ago and are so thankful that we can finally hit the eject button.
Available on DVD Tuesday, April 5th
