Trouble with the Curve
                                                                                      
Director: Robert Lorenz
Year: 2012
Rating: 6.0
Is there anything that says America more than combining Clint Eastwood and baseball? If he had been eating some apple pie, it would have been the trifecta. I would have stood up and sang the National anthem. I really liked this film when baseball was at the center of it. Less so when it was the father-daughter relationship that was under the microscope and even less so when it brought in the romantic interest. For the daughter thankfully. Clint was a few years beyond having a romantic fling in films. You can practically hear him creak when he moves. He was 82 when he made this film and looks every minute of that.  And his character plays to form. Eastwood has always been touchy and grumpy in his films, but he has reached the Get Off My Lawn Old Man grumpiness stage in this one. A real sourpuss. Getting old just sucks. Ask me. I know.



He plays a legendary scout for the Atlanta Braves and in the very first scene of him trying to urinate sets the mood. He is losing his sight and bumps into everything without a warning sign. Yet he is Eastwood and you believe every second of his performance. Irritated with everyone, with himself, with his doctors, he lashes out at his daughter who loves him even with all the baggage she totes with her. He loves her but is unable to express it or explain to her why he has been such a shit to her. He is that generation. You don't talk about that sort of thing. Better to sweep it under the rug and move on. A friend texted me about a film he just saw "Good but like all films now about 20 minutes too long". Very true with some exceptions. This isn't one of them. There were chunks that could have gone AWOL and no one would have minded. But keep the baseball parts - every pitch, every swing, every observation, every quiz. When the daughter - Amy Adams by the way - quizzes the guy she is becoming interested in about baseball, I can actually boast that I got most of them. The team with four pitchers with 20-game winners. Easy. Who hit the homer before Fisk hit his. Easy. The three pitchers that Reggie Jackson hit homers off of in the World Series. Not so easy.



Atlanta has sent Gus (Clint) to scout a high school hitter who has all the scouts buzzing. Hits everything a mile.  Mickey, his daughter, goes as well as she has become worried about him. She is a top lawyer on the verge of becoming partner. The Red Sox scout is there as well who sees Gus as his idol and Mickey as a babe. I kept thinking I know this actor from somewhere but could not place him. Justin Timberlake. Still not sure who that is. Much of the film and the part I liked was just Gus sitting in the stands or in the bar with other scouts and talking baseball or movies.  He can't see so well but he can hear. And so concludes that this say hey kid can't hit the curve. A great ending to this film. Just too much filler. Directed by Robert Lorenz (Mystic River) and John Goodman has a nice part.