Interesting, but Often Dull Baseball Movie

Rating: 7/10 (6 August 2013)

Clint Eastwood plays a curmudgeon. Hasn't he been doing this for about a decade now. I'm not saying he is bad at it (Grand Torino, for example), but it would seem that the quiet spaghetti western guy, the stranger in town, is perpetually ticked off. He has also taken on the role of the guy who won't let anyone in on his demons. He breaks things, yells profanities, intimidates, not in the cool way he used to, but because of inner pain. Still he is pretty good. My problem with this is as a baseball movie. It is pretty much about scouting and the intricacies of that profession. Eastwood has been a top scout but is taking abuse from the young guys with the computer printouts and databases who think they can see into the soul of a player much better than he. Because of his snarky being, his daughter, who has become a top drawer corporate lawyer shows up to take care of him. She is really doing him a favor because he is nothing but horrible to her. Of course, he is covering up all kinds of issues. He lives in fear that his macular degeneration will bring an end to the one thing he lives for: scouting young players. We also have Justin Timberlake, playing a scout for the Boston Red Sox and who was signed by Eastwood. He blew his arm out and has taken this job. He develops a relationship with Eastwood's daughter and this complicates things somewhat.
The problem with this is that the plot and direction are so pat and romantic. Despite the gnarly scout, everything is kind of schmaltzy. The camera work is over the top in a sort of National Geographic way. There are lots of contrived shots for effect. John Goodman who is really a "good man" in this is fun to watch, but even he is a bit much. I'm very picky about baseball movies and this one left me a bit uninspired.