Trouble with the Curve

 

I liked the characters and the performances in Trouble with the Curve, so I am recommending it.  I just wished the screenwriter Randy Brown had given them a better plot to inhabit.  The movie is pleasant and very likable, but it just comes across as being so routine and predictable that we know what roles each and every character will play as soon as they walk onto the screen.  Fortunately, we have skilled and likable actors like Clint Eastwood and Amy Adams playing those characters.

Eastwood plays Gus, a grizzled and aging baseball scout whose eyes are starting to fail him, although he's too proud to admit it, sometimes even to himself.  Part of the plot deals with Gus defending his old traditional ways of scouting baseball players, using paper stats and traveling cross country to actually watch these players in action.  His rival in the business is an oily and cocky young scout (Matthew Lillard, giving an overly oily and cocky performance), who thinks that computers can do all the work for him.  With the movie taking a pro-old fashioned stance, you could almost say that the movie is a counterpoint to last year's film about baseball agents, Moneyball.  Unlike that film, however, the movie is not entirely about the scouting process.  It's a sentimental drama about a father and the estranged adult daughter whom he never paid much attention to over the years.

That would be Mickey (Amy Adams), a career woman vying for a partnership at the law firm she works for, who has pretty much given up on having much of a personal relationship with her father.  She visits him from time to time, but their meetings usually result in long periods of awkward silence.  As Gus prepares to leave in order to scout out the newest high school baseball sensation who seems destined for the Majors, Mickey gets a visit from Gus' boss and friend, Pete (John Goodman), who knows that something is wrong with Gus' vision, and wants her to follow him along on his latest scouting trip.  She reluctantly agrees after much personal reflection, and joins her dad on a trip to North Carolina, where there will be much father-daughter bonding, secrets of the past revealed, and as many plot contrivances that you can cram into a screenplay.

It's the performances and chemistry of Eastwood and Adams who make the trip worth taking, and the movie itself worth watching.  While there is nothing particularly new about either of these characters (both are pretty much playing character types they've played in the past), they are fun to watch, and each get their own individual moments that hint at an even better movie.  Such instances include Eastwood's heartbreaking visit to his wife's grave, and the big confrontation scene between father and daughter where it is finally revealed why Gus left her behind with an aunt and uncle when she was only six years old.  While everything here is predictable and familiar, it's done with a certain degree of skill by director Robert Lorenz (a longtime assistant and producer to Eastwood on his films).  Even if the material he's been handed isn't the best, he knows how to work with these actors, and gets some strong individual moments in there.

Also worked into the plot is a love interest for Mickey named Johnny (Justin Timberlake), a former pro player that Gus discovered a couple years ago.  Since then, Johnny has been forced to leave the game he loves, since he wrecked his arm by pulling off his signature fastball pitch one too many times.  He's now working as an agent as well, and hopes to get a job up in the announcer's booth.  The character of Johnny isn't particularly well developed.  He pretty much shows up so Mickey will have someone to open up to.  And yet, once again, it is Timberlake's performance that wins us over.  He has good chemistry with Adams, and fires off his comedic one liners with enthusiasm.  This is a case of a cast rising above the script they've been given.  With the wrong approach, this material could have been hopelessly sentimental.  But Eastwood, Adams, and Timberlake bring enough honesty to their performances that we go along with it.  The only stuff they can't sell is the last 15 minutes, which is hopelessly contrived, and feels like the script is checking off every hanging plot thread one by one, wrapping everything up in an overly convenient fashion.

 

Trouble with the Curve is not a great sports movie, like Eastwood's Million Dollar Baby, but it's still highly enjoyable, despite the familiarity.  It's small, quiet, and might have a hard time getting noticed as the big fall movies start to roll in over the coming months.  But, it's always comforting to see Eastwood in front of the camera again.  If this does turn out to be his last acting job, it won't be remembered as a great moment in a tremendous career, but at least it won't be a bad one.

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