Trouble with the Curve

Logline: An ailing baseball scout in his twilight years takes his daughter along for one last recruiting trip.

Cast: Clint Eastwood, Amy Adams, Justin Timberlake, John Goodman, Matthew Lillard

Directed by: Robert Lorenz

I just got done saying the other day that I wouldn't have as much time on my hands with school starting and screenplay reading... and then I go ahead and do a double-header last night for both Trouble with the Curve and Dredd 3D. I was interested in this primarily because the trailer had Oscar-bait written all over it.

Review

Oscar-bait?

I really don't think so.

The first thing I have to say about this movie is the fact that I know the screenplay for it was written 15 years ago and originally had Dustin Hoffman attached. 3 years ago after Gran Torino, a friend of writer Randy Brown read this old screenplay and sent it to Eastwood's people thinking he'd be perfect for the role. Lo and behold, here we are in 2012 with a movie on our hands. You may be thinking cool story man, but why is this relevant? Well, to be honest, they didn't really change much of that stuff that was written, meaning most of the movie is filled with clichés that have been done a million times since the movie was written. Diving into a pond as a romantic "first kiss" .... Really? The only things they added were a Dr. Phil joke and a Kardashian one - both in which aren't really funny to the average person. Maybe I'm bitter. But hey, Gus Lobel the main character is so why can't I be?

The film is actually powerfully acted though. Amy Adams takes the reins and rides this baseball flick to the finish line, making every scene look EASY. Clint is pretty good too, but I expected him to be more gritty than he was. Justin is in rom-com mode like he was in Friends with Benefits, and I liked that movie, so - Yeah. All in all the acting carries the emotional scenes and makes them kind of touching. What falters is the fact that this story becomes severely predictable. Actually, I read an early draft of the screenplay for this movie and the peanut boy DOES NOT become the pitcher to make Bo Gentry strike out numerous times, and even though it didn't happen in the screenplay - it was soooo obvious it was going to happen in the movie. That's not the only thing that's predictable.

I've been pretty harsh on this so far. It's not actually THAT bad. It's not Oscar-worthy, although Adams may get a nomination (at least for a Golden Globe anyways), but it's still worth a watch because although boring and cliché at times, the movie does have a pretty solid father/daughter story full of conflict and becomes the main focus of the story's baseball centric plot.

Topic of the Day

A big pet peeve of mine is when a story turns its "darkest hour" moment and follows it up with something that's completely unbelievable, but convenient for the plot. It's like the writers got sloppy. For instance, in Curve, Mickey (Gus' daughter) walks out of the hotel after losing touch with her father and the boy she was falling for & hears this sound of a kid pitching booming fastballs and curves outside of her room. She takes this kid to Atlanta and has him pitch and he shows the scouts that Bo Gentry isn't that good to begin with & that the club should have listened to Gus all along. I mean, talk about catching lightening in a jar. Convenience is something that kills a good story for me.

Consensus

Trouble With the Curve is touted by many critics as "solid". If you're going by regular definition of solid which is probably something like: well acted, well paced, good story, good characters, all tightly packed into a movie with little error - well, I have to disagree. Trouble With the Curve is flawed with clichés, predictable storytelling, and a weak turning point that leads into its third act. However, Adams is something special and she alone made me enjoy this movie. I didn't mind it, definitely not Oscar-worthy, but worth the watch.   

6/10