You can sort of see it a mile away, but it works.

Rating: 8/10 (23 September 2012)

Clint Eastwood is back, and this time he decided to take a break behind the camera and appear in front in his first acting appearance since 2008's Gran Torino in Trouble With The Curve, a nice family drama that has its flaws but knows what it's talking about when it comes to family and baseball. Wow what a long sentence.
Eastwood plays Gus, a baseball scout who neglects his vision. He's on thin ice, and if he screws up his next recruiting job, then he's fired. His estranged daughter Mickey (the lovely Amy Adams) is a bit frightened to talk to him, and she doesn't really connect with him due to their past. But she feels that she must help him on this, so she joins him on his scouting trip, and the two sort of try to patch things up. Throw Justin Timberlake into the mix as a former baseball player who's becoming a scout who forms a spark with Mickey.
TWTC is a bit of a cliché. The story might have been done before. First time director Robert Lorenz, who usually produces Eastwood's movies, didn't take the best of notes that he could've. But I am not saying that the movie doesn't work. It does, and well. It's difficult finding actors more enjoyable than Eastwood, Adams, and Timberlake.
Eastwood does here what he did in Gran Torino, and it works. Nothing is more delightful. Adams is just such a wonderful actress and you really can't take your eyes off of her. The moments that the two of them share are the best, and luckily, there are plenty of them. This movie is real, and if not on par with some of Eastwood's directorial efforts, it's still satisfying.
I was charmed by the chemistry that the two leads shared. They do such a good job of playing a father/daughter pair that click. It's a nice movie, and though you may see some of it's plot points coming a mile away, you can't deny the movies charm. We have seen these characters before, but it's hard finding them as well performed as these two. I think it works, I say see it.
B+