Well, I went to see Trouble With the Curve. I had planned to see it at some point but my Mom really wanted to see it because she loves Clint Eastwood so we went today. And overall I would say it's a good movie, but it's also a very generic movie. Let me explain.
The plot of the movie is pretty simple. Eastwood is a baseball scout and he's getting old. His eyes are going and there's young bucks in the office that want to push him aside for their own political ambitions inside the office. It's actually a large part of the drama in the movie. The hard-working people are pushed around by the backstabbers.
While on the road with his daughter, they meet a former baseball player turned scout played by Justin Timberlake. And he's your generic love interest. He's the guy who had his dream of playing in the big leagues and through working too hard, he injured himself and now he's got a new dream; to be a baseball announcer. And right about here you can see the conclusion of the movie.
The whole plot was paint by numbers. And while it didn't take any chances, it did what it does very well. That also goes for the actors. Clint Eastwood is a good enough actor to realize what it is he does well. He's very good at being the cranky old guy.
The very few times they tried to give some kind of legitimate dramatic moments, honestly it doesn't work. Amy Adams has this really emotional scene in a diner with her finally breaking down and dumping all her emotional baggage she has about feeling abandoned as a child. And as much as I like Amy Adams as an actress, these scenes just didn't work. They were out of place and mostly felt forced. I don't think better actors would've done a better job. It's just something uncomfortable that didn't fit with the theme of the movie. There's another scene along with this that made it even more uncomfortable that I don't want to say, but it's also VERY uncomfortable and really could've been cut from the movie all together and not really effected anything important.
I call this movie the anti-Moneyball movie. Moneyball was all about crunching numbers and using computers to build a team on a small budget that can win you the most games. It takes something that traditionally was all about the heart and soul of the game and sterilized it. This is the complete opposite. Where we have guys with decades of experience fighting against the "modernization" of a traditional game. It was about feeling, experience, and sometimes just dumb luck. The major criticism I had with Moneyball was that Billy Beane had this tortured love/hate relationship with baseball. So much so, I wondered why he was in the business because he just seemed to have distain for baseball in general. This movie celebrates the game. It's guys and gals who know everything about baseball. They live it, breathe it, and respect it. It's more than a game but yet still is a game. And the antagonists in this movie tend to think and act like Billy Beane. They go by numbers rather than first-hand experience. They look at the dollars spent and not the human element of the players who play the game.
My final impression is this: It's a movie with a plot that isn't anything special. It doesn't take many chances, and the times it does it falls a little flat. And despite all that, I think it's still a great movie. It has a lot to say about the game of baseball and about how we treat others. I won't say it's a "must see" but it's one you won't regret watching.
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