It's rare these days to see Clint Eastwood acting in a front
of the camera without also directing from behind the camera. Trouble
With the Curve is the directing debut from frequent Eastwood producer Rob
Lorenz, and while Eastwood isn't directing, he seems right at home playing a
fading baseball scout clinging to old school methods. A tremendously entertaining
cast more than makes up for the conventional, overly melodramatic plot filled
to the brim with "baseball as life" metaphors.
Gus (Clint Eastwood) is part of the baseball scouting old
guard who believes more in the sound of a bat or a pitch than the stats off of
some computer. Think of this as the "Anti-Moneyball"
movie. Gus is old and on the verge of losing it, so the new generation of cyber
scouts tries to muscle him out of the organization. In response, Gus gets one
last shot to grab a good prospect doing it the old fashioned way. Along the way, he tries to mend a
broken relationship with his daughter, Mickey (Amy Adams), and deal with a
former prospect turned scout (Justin Timberlake) who seems destined to follow
in Gus's footsteps.
Eastwood is playing the same ornery old codger he's been
playing for years with most of it being for laughs but occasionally pulling off
some of the dramatic moments solidly with a bit of help. Most of that help comes from a
predictably great performance from Amy Adams who can play roles like this in
her sleep at this point in her career. Nonetheless, her interplay with Eastwood
sells the characters' troubled history, earning every bit of emotion by the
end. The real surprise comes from
Justin Timberlake who, despite being mostly relegated to a romantic interest
for Mickey, gets to have a bit of fun with the slightly aloof but passionate
former pitcher.
It'll be hard to miss the underhand lob of an ending as most
will see it coming from a mile away, and the villains are almost laughably
"evil" at times. Still, the film
does exactly what it sets out to do, and it's mostly successful thanks to its
stellar cast. Trouble With the Curve is a crowd pleasing, old-fashioned comedy-drama
that will appeal to both baseball fans and non-fans alike.
