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Rating: A bat crafted from the wood of a tree split in two by lightning. "Wonderboy" accompanies Roy Hobbs for more than thirty years of his life. From an early childhood spent in an archaic, rural America, Roy is a destined prodigy; a future baseball champion and very likely a record man capable of making history.
"The Natural" is a novel by writer Bernard Malamud and it tells us a piece of life of a boy endowed with an extraordinary talent for baseball, a great pitcher, a great batter, and great at everything else.
In '84, the story of Roy Hobbs becomes a film in which the face of the unfortunate protagonist is that of a mature Robert Redford. "The Natural" does not merely depict a sports story, it aims to be something more. It seeks to open many reflections on what a gift is and how it can be used in the best possible way and how much chance and serendipity matter in life. A lightning bolt gives Roy the ability to hit countless home runs, to become the potential idol of stadium crowds in search of great emotions. But the choices in life always bring consequences, and for Roy, the wrong ones bring a load of burdens upon him that his natural talent cannot prevent, leading to a human drift that seems impossible to stop. Redemption will be slow and will lead the protagonist to grow, finding himself one evening needing to hit the final home run to save himself, to give sense to his gift, to the sport he loves.
The film has the merit of having many impactful moments but the magic is somewhat lost, and the story of this boy seeking his destiny, too early snatched away by a woman (Barbara Hershey) and her gun, suffers. The first thirty minutes are confusing and with rhythms not suitable for a narrative that wants to be engaging, everything is very fast and one often gets lost. In the last hour, however, Levinson finally manages to give a definite shape to the film and finds the balance between spectacle and intimate storytelling. Roy's gaze at his "Wonderboy" split in two by a pitch one summer evening is the key moment of the film; everything is over, the dream of a lifetime has come to an end for Roy, but there is time for one last pitch, the final ball hit that crosses the floodlights shattering them, and amidst a thousand sparks, the run along the perimeter of the diamond. The final point that closes the parabola of a hero, or perhaps more simply a parenthesis in a man's life.
A great cast, besides Redford, including Glenn Close, Robert Duvall, and Kim Basinger, for a story that has the merit of immediately leaving a mark.
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