One of the better baseball scouting films

Rating: 7/10 (15 November 2018)

"Trouble with the Curve" is one of the best movies made to date about baseball scouting. There have been a few over the years. But as with sports films in general, those are mostly on the high end with lots of glitter. This film shows much more of what must be the mundane life of scouts who drive from town to town and stay in mom and pop motels. They do this week after week to watch and check out ball players.
Clint Eastwood stars as an aging scout whose future looms as one in retirement. He doesn't want to quit, and has wisdom in spotting players strengths and weaknesses. That only comes from experience. His job in scouting a possible first place pick for the Atlanta Braves is being challenged by a younger, whiz-kid computer jockey who goes by the stats of the electronic media.
Eastwood's Gus has a daughter whose upbringing was dysfunctional. But Mickey has made good in a legal career. For many years, her dad took her on scouting trips, and she is a baseball nut as well. Now she leaves her work with a big case facing her, to be with her dad. One can guess where this will go, with romance entering the picture.
This is an enjoyable and satisfying sports movie and family drama. It's one of the first films Eastwood has made in a number of years that he didn't also direct. His roles of an older man, which he is in real life, have become predictable in his impatience and irascibility. That's beginning to wear a little thin.