Director: Robert Lorenz
Genre: Drama
Rating: B-
I seem to be watching a lot of movies that I'm not overly sold on lately. They've got great casts and great concepts, but they just seem to fail to fully deliver. Trouble with the Curve is another such movie. It's got a stellar cast - even Justin Timberlake has been in some good movies - and the plot was interesting, even if a bit overused. Somehow, though, it just fell a bit short and even though I enjoyed it overall I found myself a bit disappointed.
Gus Lobel (Eastwood) is a baseball scout for the Atlanta Braves who is facing opposition in his work because of his dislike of technology - his inability to adapt has lead to the higher ups to give him one last chance to prove his worth. What Gus hasn't told his bosses is that he's been having trouble with his eyes; something that he rather firmly refuses to deal with. Co-worker and good friend Pete (Goodman) intervenes in Gus' life by voicing his concerns to Gus' lawyer daughter Mickey (Adams). Once Amy's concern gets up she decides to go to North Carolina where her father's scouting a new prospect - despite the fact that she's been assigned a big case at work in order to prove herself as worthy of being a partner. Also in North Carolina is new scout Johnny Flanagan (Timberlake) who used to be a pitcher, until his arm blew out and is now hoping to become an announcer.
For the most part, I loved Eastwood and Adams in their roles. There were a few points when I felt that they overacted a bit and many points when I wanted to yell at one or both of them, but the chemistry between the two of them was beautiful. I really bought them as a father/daughter duo, and I love how strained their relationship was throughout. Timberlake was also really good in this role, although a bit one dimensional. I found I didn't care as much as I was supposed to about his problems and past. It really wasn't necessary and just felt kind of like it was an attempt to add a bit of melodrama.
What I really didn't buy was Goodman; at least not about half the time. His performance really felt acted and stale. He had no chemistry with Eastwood and I didn't buy for a moment that he really cared about Gus - it was just like he was reading lines. His performance did get better as the movie went on, and I did like the chemistry that he had with Adams, but overall it was stale. I also wasn't sold by pretty much any of the more minor characters. Trouble seemed to operate under the idea that good guys are good, bad guys are bad, and if you're not supposed to root for them they need to be assholes. There are a lot of extra dimensions added to this plot that I think are kind of unnecessary. Mickey being up for promotion, Gus' boss' being out to get him... It could have been really nicely done if they had simplified things a bit and just stuck to the plot of this older scout who hasn't changed with the times and is forced to reconnect with his daughter who he kind of neglected as a child (for reasons that she doesn't know) and is also going blind... that's enough. Everything else is just kind of unnecessary filler. Trouble would have been better off if it had just focused on Mickey and Gus (and sure, the love story with Johnny as well, because a good love story doesn't hurt) and done away with the rest.
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