Rating: R | Runtime: 105 minutes
Release Date: June 14th, 2024 (USA)
Studio: Vertical Entertainment
Director(s): David Duchovny
Writer(s): David Duchovny / David Duchovny (novel Bucky F*cking Dent)

Curse over cancer.

Twenty years after his underrated directorial debut House of D, David Duchovny returns to the director chair for an adaptation of his novel Bucky F*cking Dent, now retitled as Reverse the Curse. The film centers on an estranged father and son brought together by a courtesy call from the nurse watching after the former. This hospital stay is the first Ted (Logan Marshall-Green) has heard about his dad’s (Duchovny’s Marty) terminal cancer diagnosis despite it being months old. He doesn’t necessarily want it to affect him considering the resentment he holds for the man, but he sees reconnecting as a chance for closure if not reconciliation.

The gimmick: Marty’s immovable psychosomatic connection to the Boston Red Sox. He sees his life as being an integral part of the so-called “Curse of the Bambino” and thus devotes these final days to staying alive long enough to see it end—a victory becoming his permission to pass away. So, when the Sox are winning (as they are throughout the first two-thirds of the 1978 season), Marty is dancing in the streets. And when they’re losing, Marty can barely get out of bed. His nurse Mariana (Stephanie Beatriz) tries her best to keep his spirits up and ease his suffering en route to his inevitable demise while Ted’s presence helps brighten the good days and darken the bad.

What might therefore happen if Ted, Mariana, and Marty’s old friends (two of which are played by “Californication” alums Evan Handler and Jason Beghe—with Pamela Adlon making a cameo at the very start) stage a pennant run by creating a bubble around the dying man that falsely doctors the truth of the standings? Will it give Marty the verve for life that he needs to keep going and patch things up with his son? Or will the excitement ultimately not prove enough to stop the cancer from its unrelenting attack? And as Ted grows closer to his father again, will that proximity also spark romance between he and Mariana?

The answers to those questions are obvious. The path towards them is janky. In many regards, Reverse the Curse proves two very different films jammed together with seemingly no interest in softening the jarring shift halfway through. Thankfully, both halves are enjoyable. Neither is perfect, but you cannot deny the heart given by the filmmakers and expressed to us by the work. Hour One is a farcical comedy with dumb jokes, deflected emotion, and whatever Marshall-Green’s “running” form is. Hour Two is the unavoidable reckoning of authentic emotion and memory that gives clarity to the unspoken fears and regrets held by all three of its lead characters.

Many of the choices made are convenient. Many of the plot diversions are so abrupt that you hope Duchovny rendered them better on the page. And the acting is, unfortunately, all over the board when it comes to keeping up with the resulting tonal incongruities (although, if anyone on-screen can be commended for a consistently strong performance, it’s Duchovny himself). There are zero surprises (beyond a quick subplot to answer why Marty disconnected from his family that’s resonant if also a throwaway eventually replaced by another reason altogether), few narrative missteps as far as letting these men re-learn to love, and an ending populated by the hope amidst grief you always knew it would possess.

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David Duchovny, Stephanie Beatriz, and Logan Marshall-Green in REVERSE THE CURSE; courtesy of Vertical.