Trouble with the Curve

"You don't know anything about scouting."
"Don't tell them that."

Gus Lobel (Eastwood) is a scout for the Atlanta Braves.  Unlike most of his counterparts, he refuses to use a computer to aid his information.  The Atlanta Braves manager, Vince (Patrick), is encouraged by Phillip Sanderson (Lillard) to retire Gus and find a scout that embraces modern technology.  Gus' friend Pete (Goodman), the Braves head of scouting, asks that they allow Gus to go to North Carolina and scout a big prospect.

Gus has a problem: his eyesight is failing.  Pete is concerned, and contacts Gus' daughter Mickey (Adams).  Gus and Mickey have a strained relationship, and she is in the middle of a big case at her law firm.  But Mickey goes to North Carolina to help her father scout Bo Gentry (Joe Massingill).  Can they mend their relationship and keep their careers.


When the film initially premiered, it looked like (and was promoted as) a sports film.  However, in the end the film is more concerned with the father / daughter relationship.  On the baseball front, this film feels like the opposite of Moneyball.  Moneyball is about the advantages of using technology for baseball, while this film shows the downside to technology.

Clint Eastwood reminds people that he is quite capable as an actor.  This film marks the first film that he has appeared in, but did not direct since 1993's In the Line of Fire.  His eye condition, the audience gets to see his perspective at one point, is an actual condition which effects a member of my family.  Amy Adams is great.  Justin Timberlake plays a former player, turned scout, who doubles as a love interest for Amy Adams' Mickey.  John Goodman is endearing and Matthew Lillard gets to be the smarmy villain.

I still don't know anything about baseball... but that didn't stop me from enjoying the film.

Trouble with the Curve (2012) 111 minutes
Rating: PG-13 for language, sexual references, some thematic material and smoking
Director: Robert Lorenz
Starring: Clint Eastwood as Gus Lobel
Amy Adams as Mickey Lobel
Justin Timberlake as Johnny Flanagan
Robert Patrick as Vince
Matthew Lillard as Phillip Sanderson
John Goodman as Pete Klein