‘Reverse The Curse’ Review – Solid Dramedy Swings For The Heartstrings

The comedy/drama hybrid genre, often referred to cheekily as “dramedy”, spans far and wide across the cinematic landscape, and comes in all sorts of forms. Often, a film will lean in favor of one direction and lean on the other for a kind of remedial, intermittent support as the filmmakers see fit. These films range from masterful balancing acts between cackling and crying to utter misfires that fail heartily to work with both tones and types at once.

Reverse the Curse is the rare brand of dramedy that utilizes both sides of the duality pretty much evenly, and flips between them on a dime. The film is equal parts sad and stitch-inducing, often following a serious, occasionally even tragic sequence with a series of sharp, dry jokes, or vice versa.

It’s an unusual viewing experience that’ll keep you on your toes. But if you read the synopsis and thought this was going to be some kind of sports-related effort, as it may seem, you’ll be disappointed. It’s said to follow Ted (Logan Marshall-Green) as he tries to keep his fatally ill father alive by faking a winning streak for his favorite baseball team.

That aspect alluded to in that tidbit above veils the deeper aspects of what is really a film about a broken relationship between a father and son, neither of whom really knows how to handle the situation. It’s raw, awkward, and terribly funny at times, all the while going for a certain level of discomfort with a few scenes that may or may not work for some folks.

This is a “come as you are” kind of movie. The characters are miserably flawed the whole way through, shown falling apart through silhouette frames in dark hallways and glitzy flashbacks to days gone by. It presents everything as-is, no makeup or touch-ups, and the realism benefits the film greatly.

You’re just thrown into these characters’ lives in the middle of a great potential loss in the form of Marty’s (David Duchovny, who’s also directing) death, who is, of course, Ted’s father. That idea alone is easy enough to sympathize with, but Reverse the Curse is sure to genuinely earn your feelings, too.

It doesn’t just rely on conventions or commonalities to try and get you to tap in emotionally. This is a well-structured story with perfectly placed, piercing beats that land exactly as they need to. You’ll likely be moved at one point or another, even if you drop in and out as the thing trucks along.

At 105 minutes, though not an inherently long runtime, this one does seem to lolligag a bit. It’s fun to pitstop on occasion and spend a little leisure time with the cast, but more often than not, it’s more distracting than anything else.

Add to that the issue that a few of the side plots and shenanigans come off as contrived, and you’ve got yourself a pacing problem of sorts. For those not as compelled by the emotional arcs all the way through, Reverse the Curse may be a relatively noncommittal experience at times.

Yet there exists an earnestness in the touch of Duchovny that brings this one home. It’s got multiple undeniable moments of clarity that separate this from other less impactful efforts that are cut from the same cloth. Reverse the Curse is consistent in too many ways to be deemed anything less than solid, even if it isn’t much more than that, either.

You can do a whole lot worse right now than this film and for anyone looking for a watch that you can invest in, Reverse the Curse should do the trick.

Reverse the Curse is currently playing in select theaters and is available On Demand courtesy of Vertical Entertainment.