Trouble with the Curve

   

           Baseball has provided so many metaphors for life over the years. When you are young, it’s all about the bases you get to. As you get older you face life with two strikes against you or you do what it takes when life throws you a curve. Just like in baseball, you can handle most of the fastballs; the trouble comes with the curve, which brings us to the perfectly titled new Clint Eastwood movie.

         Gus (Clint Eastwood) is a relic in the world of baseball scouting. Computers have come and almost made his job obsolete, but Gus knows computers can’t tell if a guy has it or not. Gus’s best weapon is starting to fail him though, he can no longer see very well. Gus has a daughter Mickey (Amy Adams) who he doesn’t have the closest relationship with her father. With the draft coming up Gus’s team the Atlanta Braves want him to go and scout this prospect, which they plan to take with their top pick. Gus’s boss Pete (John Goodman) knows there is something not right with Gus and asks Mickey to travel with him to watch this prospect. Mickey knows baseball and can hold her own with any of the other scouts who are there to watch this prospect. One of those other scouts is a player that Gus scouted, because of an injury he is no longer playing. That guy is Johnny Flanagan (Justin Timberlake), who is scouting for the Red Sox now. Together they spend the next week repairing old relationships and beginning new ones.

    This was a fun movie to watch. The story was written by first time writer Randy Brown and directed by long time Eastwood collaborator Robert Lorenz. Clint Eastwood is pretty much playing the same ‘old angry guy’ he has played the last few years with varying degrees of success. For this film it really works perfectly, but the real like of the movie is Adams and Timberlake who both show they can hold their own with a legend. The story moves at what seems like a strong pace and shows that sometimes your eyes are not always the best thing to see with. There is no such thing as throwing a perfect game as in life, there is always something that gets in the way. This is one film that hits the corners pretty solid and never throws you a curve, and although it does not through a perfect game, it is definitely a one hitter.

Brian Taylor