‘Now get out of here before I have a heart attack trying to kill you...’
Sports movies are great despite the fact that they are often repetitive and predictable. Heck, maybe they are great because they are repetitive and predictable. Sure, it feels satisfying to wear that nice, new shirt, but it’s just as good to settle into a dirty, old jumper with holes in it and that weird food stain on the front. Sometimes the warmth of the familiar is what’s needed. Well, Trouble with the Curve is as predictable as they come, and yet I still found myself wrapped up in it by the end…
Gus (Clint Eastwood) is a curmudgeonly, ageing baseball scout who is forced to reunite with his mostly estranged daughter, Mickey (Amy Adams), when his eyesight begins to fail. With the MLB Draft on the horizon and Gus under pressure to find a diamond in the rough in North Carolina, old father-daughter resentments rise to the surface. Back in Atlanta, home of Gus’ employers, the Braves, his colleague and friend Pete (John Goodman) tries to persuade the powers that be that Gus still has something to offer despite his age. A stacked supporting cast featuring Justin Timberlake, Matthew Liillard, Robert Patrick and Bob Gunton brings a touch of class to the proceedings.
When I say that Trouble with the Curve is predictable, I mean that anyone who has seen more than ten movies could map out the ending of this film within the first thirty minutes. What keeps it interesting is the dynamic between Eastwood and Adams, both of whom fully convince as father and daughter, and some assured direction from longtime Eastwood associate Robert Lorenz. Marco Beltrami, another longtime Eastwood collaborator, provides a suitably inspirational score, and Trouble with the Curve is further proof of the benefits of surrounding yourself with people whom you know and trust. The film struggles somewhat away from the Eastwood/Adams dynamic, with Timberlake miscast as an unnecessary love interest, but the strength of the two leads carries the film through its more plodding moments.
Trouble with the Curve is often nothing more than an entertaining distraction, but when it needs to deliver some emotional resonance, it does so with real feeling. As with much of Eastwood’s work, it’s competent, workmanlike, and efficient – much like the man himself.
