Can Clint Eastwood actually make a bad movie? I'm beginning
to think it's impossible. I went back to check out the list of movies he's
starred in over the past several decades and while I found one or two that weren't
my taste and maybe one other that was just different I couldn't actually find
one I would say was terrible. Remarkably at 82 his record remains intact with
the new release TROUBLE WITH THE CURVE.
Here Eastwood plays Gus, a baseball scout for the Atlanta
Braves. Gus is getting older and beginning to have problems with his eyesight,
something he needs to do his job. The franchise is looking for smarter ways to
decide who to sign and Gus is in competition with Phillip (Matthew Lillard) and
his computer stats style of knowing which players to sign.
Running along side this story is that of Gus' daughter
Mickey (Amy Adams), a top notch lawyer who is on the fast track to partnership.
If Mickey can win the latest case she's in charge of then she's almost guaranteed
a partnership at the firm. But things with Gus will find these two crossing
paths that are not well traveled between father and daughter.
The two have issues with one another that stem back from
years before. When Gus' friend Pete (John Goodman) begins to think Gus might
have a problem, he calls on Mickey to help him out and to make sure Gus is all
right. While Gus doesn't want this so called babysitter with him on his latest
trip to scout out a hot prospect, Mickey goes anyway hoping that perhaps she
can get some answers to the questions she's had most of her life about her
father.
Eastwood's Gus is a cantankerous sort who is unwilling to
admit that there is something wrong. He does have the occasional moment when he
lets down his guard to his daughter but he's determined to be on his own and do
things his way like he always has. Adam's Mickey is just as stubborn as her
father and attempts to give him plenty of opportunities to open up but those
moments don't seem to be happening. How they resolve these problems that have
developed over years on a three day road trip makes for interesting viewing and
touches the heart as well.
Included in this mix is Justin Timberlake as Johnny, an
ex-ball player that Gus signed up years before but whose career has changed
over the years. Having thrown out his arm, he's now a talent scout as well. He
still gets along great with Gus and as the days go by begins to develop some
feelings for Mickey as well.
While the movie is centered around the world of baseball make
no mistake, it's not baseball that is the film's focus. This film is about the
lives of two people who should be connected from the start but whose lives have
taken them down different paths away from one another. While they both should
find comfort and ease with one another their lives offer little of either. It
is this path that they've gone down for years that has driven them apart and
has left them with emotional scars that they won't easily repair.
There isn't a bad piece of acting in this entire film. Adams
does a great job as Mickey, trying to solve the problems that she's built up
over the years. Timberlake has grown on me over the past few years showing that
he can be a dynamite actor given the chance. The surprising thing for me in
this film was Eastwood though. Always teased about a monotone delivery and for
his use of silence more than speaking, the character of Gus is given plenty of
life in Eastwood's performance here. One sequence involving him visiting his
wife's grave was particularly touching and totally different than anything I've
ever seen him do before.
When this film came out I wasn't sure that I actually wanted
to see it. I held off on it even when it came out on DVD but thought finally
why not. I'm glad I did. This was one of the most enjoyable dramas I've seen in
some time. It also proves that while Eastwood is getting older, he's also still
one of the best movie stars around today.
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