Misses a Base!

Rating: 6/10 (21 January 2020)

It's great seeing Clint Eastwood for one last time (apparently) with the starring role in a film, even allowing for the fact that it wasn't a commercial success. It's even better seeing him interacting in scenes with Amy Adams and Justin Timberlake, both well cast and I'm sure more than happy to be on the screen with a living legend. There's also an attractively strong support cast including John Goodman, Robert Patrick and Eastwood's own son, Scott. It's just a pity that the story they are collectively given to work with, couldn't have been stronger and more believable.
I'm sorry, but I just couldn't believe a major league baseball franchise would be employing a visually-impaired octogenarian, as one of their (if not the number one) talent scouts. Clint in real life is one fit unit, but he really does look all of his 80+ years in this movie and he just doesn't fit the part. Even the oldest of his group of peers, looked 20 years younger than him. Granted the movie is at pains to tell us that his increasing blindness is only suspected by The Braves, but that whole thread just appeared pretty silly to me, especially with the narrative playing the whole thing up with car damage etc. On top of all this and the constant talk of renewed contracts, his place generally looks like a dive. Surely this "important talent scout" is not just being paid peanuts. The inference from Phil (the ambitious bean-counter) is that the club can't afford him.
Amy Adams's Mickey is welcome, but she comes draped in the familiar lawyer raiments of over-worked and under-appreciated associate being used and essentially abused by her nasty group of male partners. I'd love a dollar for every time this trope has popped up in a lawyer inclusive movie. And yes, it was deemed really important, that every lawyer we see in the movie, should have their face buried frequently in their mobile phones to the point of total distraction, observed by Eastwood's Gus, on more than one occasion.
It is refreshing that the sports component of this baseball film for once doesn't include a slow-motion game climax. But at the same time, I found it hard to believe the whole thread about the Bo Gentry character being a number one draft prospect. The guy didn't even look anything like an athlete. The batter/pitcher showdown was of course very predictable.
Before he passes from this mortal coil, I, more than most, would love to see Clint Eastwood, leave one last acting legacy to accompany his widely appreciated directorial skills. But it's not going to happen with lightweight, unrealistic tales such as Trouble with the Curve is, pleasant, (almost family) entertainment though it may be, in a non-threatening way.