A Missed Opportunity.

Rating: 5/10 (9 July 2019)

'The Natural' is, unfortunately for the viewer, very unnatural in the way it chooses to tell its story. Several events occur in the film that are handled in a ham-fisted and bizarre manner. This leads to a jerky and disjointed progression of developments built around a character (Roy Hobbs) that has very little backstory, despite the fact that he's onscreen about 90% of the runtime. Because of this, interesting characters such as Pop Fisher, Iris Gaines and Max Mercy get sidelined. Speaking of characters: the villains of this film are generic and somewhat cartoonish; they do not add much in the way of real tension. Despite all this, the cinematography and score are both excellent.
This film could have been much better, but the screenwriting and execution leave a lot to be desired.