“Trouble with the Curve” stars Clint Eastwood, and he’s not behind the camera this time, just in front. He plays Gus, a longtime baseball scout for the Atlanta Braves who’s starting to…well…get old. He’s losing his vision but doesn’t want to tell anyone so he can continue his job watching games and evaluating players. But Gus’ longtime friend and boss Pete (played by John Goodman) can tell that Gus isn’t his normal, sharp self.
So Pete enlists the help of Gus’s daughter Mickey (named after Mickey Mantle, and played by Amy Adams). She’s an attorney at a big law firm in Atlanta who’s close to becoming a partner in the firm. Mickey decides to take a mini-vacation and join Gus on the road to help him scout a star high school player who the Braves are thinking of drafting. However there’s a problem: Gus and Mickey aren’t exactly close, since he abandoned her when she was a child after her mother/his wife died.
So far so good. But then “Trouble with the Curve” gets into trouble with the appearance of Johnny, a former major league pitcher who’s now a scout for the Boston Red Sox, and who’s played by Justin Timberlake. His goal (like many former athletes) is to get into broadcasting and announce Red Sox games. Johnny meets-up with Gus, who signed him when he was a prospect, and he’s introduced to Mickey. And…of course you know where this is going. This is a film about relationships set in the world of baseball. And there are some hits and some misses.
On the positive side: Eastwood and Adams are fantastic. Their scenes together are honest, dramatic and believable. However, the Mickey and Johnny storyline is filled with errors and it becomes a distraction, taking the film away from the father-daughter story, which is supposed to be the main focus of the film. If first-time screenwriter Randy Brown had just stuck to the true, dramatic core of movie – the dynamic between Gus and Mickey – “Curve” would have been a much better film.
Also, the baseball scenes lack the realism of last year’s Oscar-nominated “Moneyball”. The hot-shot high school star is made out to be a goofball (who only hits home runs) and Goodman’s Head of Scouting doesn’t have much depth. Matthew Lillard (“The Descendants”) is good in a small role as a member of the scouting department who thinks Gus can no longer do his job.
There are plenty of corny scenes in “Trouble with the Curve”, but also a few effective surprises. But this script needed a few more weeks in Spring Training before making it’s big league debut.
“Trouble with the Curve” is rated PG-13 for some adult language and Eastwood smoking a cigar throughout. It’s appropriate for kids 12 and up. This could’ve been a home-run and a contender for the World Series of the movie world – the Oscars. But it simply swings and misses way too often.
On The Official LCJ Report Card, “Trouble with the Curve” gets a C.