Clint Eastwood's first film as an actor for a director other than himself since "In the Line of Fire" in 1993, "Trouble With the Curve" is a corny, conventional and quite enjoyable father-daughter reconciliation story set mostly in the minor league baseball world of the South.
Playing a sort of PG-13-rated version of his ornery coot in "Gran Torino," Eastwood is vastly entertaining as an old-fashioned scout who disdains computers and fancy statistical charts in favor of his own time-tested instincts. Making his directorial debut, Eastwood's longtime producer Rob Lorenz knows just how to pitch the story to take advantage of the humorous side of his star's obstinate crankiness, and Amy Adams makes a good match as the career-driven daughter with festering resentments.
As in "Gran Torino" four years ago, Eastwood does not hesitate to spotlight the debilitations of old age, in fact doing so right off the bat as his Gus Lobel patiently coaxes out a morning pee, struggles with vision problems and stumbles into a coffee table at his modest home. A legendary baseball scout responsible for discovering some major stars in his day, Gus is one of the last of the cigar-chompers, a guy who relies on what he sees, hears and intuits but, with just three months left on his contract with the Atlanta Braves, "may be ready for pasture." Anybody who's seen "Moneyball" will know which side of the table he sits on.
AP
His only kid, conspicuously named Mickey (Amy Adams), is a high-powered young Atlanta lawyer on the verge of becoming a partner at her firm. Still stewing over having been palmed off on relatives when her mother died young so Gus could continue to troll the minors for talent, Mickey has commitment issues with men and the last thing this workaholic could imagine is accompanying her dad through southern backwaters on what could be his final swing. But her old man's pal (John Goodman) talks her into it, suggesting that it could be a last chance to patch things up.
First-time screenwriter Randy Brown puts his players on base and then comes through with what feels like a solid hit through the infield that scores a couple of runs. When Mickey joins her dad in North Carolina, their nearly every exchange almost immediately turns into an argument that ends with her stomping out and him telling her to go home. But good sense and some interesting developments keep her around: A former recruit of Gus's, Johnny Flanagan (Justin Timberlake), who made it to the bigs, then threw his arm out and is now a Red Sox scout, starts hound-dogging Mickey. She has great baseball sense herself and, alongside Gus, evaluates the season's top prospect, Bo Gentry (Joe Massingill), a beefy slugger who hits it out nearly every time he comes up to the plate.
18 Sep, 2012
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Source: http://feeds.abcnews.com/click.phdo?i=2d83e02cf076b8f806b8941c32d747a5
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