Trouble With the Curve opens with a scene of Clint Eastwood’s back as he struggles to urinate and has a conversation with his uncooperative apparatus before it finally complies with his demands. The film is all downhill from there. It’s manipulative, anachronistic, sentimental claptrap that would make Ken Burns blush and is an insult to anyone who works in the baseball industry, including the very scouts it purports to defend through a staunchly Luddite point of view that would have seemed quaint a decade ago.
Aside from a host of baseball-related mistakes, the film is just too superficial to take seriously, probably better interpreted as a wishful fable than a serious story – built around the idea that good things will come to good people if they’re patient and keep their minds and hearts open. That’s cute if the film is aimed at kids, but it’s a little insulting in an adult movie that’s trying to play it straight, hitting every cliché and predictable plot point it can along the way, like the kid in driver’s ed who thinks the goal is to knock over every cone. When you see the young peanut vendor is left-handed, you know what’s coming. When you see Eastwood’s character’s daughter, Micki (the always adorable Amy Adams), play pool in a bar and humiliate the stranger she’s opposing, you know what’s coming next. When Micki is up against a glib, ambitious colleague for a potential promotion to partner at her law firm, you know where we’re going. When Micki and the younger scout Johnny, with whom she’s tentatively been flirting, end up at a lakeside in the middle of the night, you know what comes next. When Micki’s boyfriend at the start of the film says their relationship is “perfect on paper,” your eyes should roll back far enough that you can see the inside of your skull. Absolutely nothing in this film should surprise if you’ve ever seen another movie in your life.
The shame about Trouble with the Curve is that it could have been an interesting film if it weren’t so busy trying to beat us over the head with Feelings: A long-widowed scout facing his mortality not just through age but through disability (declining eyesight) and technological changes that both threaten the loss of the career to which he’s been married for thirty years reconnects with his estranged daughter as they jointly go to evaluate a candidate for the second pick in what could be that scout’s last draft. Unfortunately, the script is so busy trying to convince us what these characters are that it gives us no time to learn it organically. The scout, Gus Lobel, refers to the “Interweb” and “fang shmei,” while referring to yoga as “voodoo.” Micki’s a vegan, because a gorgeous 30-year-old woman isn’t sufficiently distinguished from grizzled 60-year-old scouts as it is. The main antagonist in the film, the office stat geek (played by Matt Lillard like he’s got a sinus infection), never goes to see players and seems to think there’s value in high school stats, while thinking nothing of insulting Gus to his face. Gus crying at his wife’s graveside while mumble-singing “You Are My Sunshine” might have looked good on paper, but in practice it is so blatantly manipulative even a Lifetime executive would send it back for rewrite.
Adams’ performance as Micki was one of the few bright spots in the movie, bringing some semblance of reality to a thinly-drawn character and delivering the best lines of the film in the diner-booth soliloquy to her father, providing at least something of a backstory to explain both her character and her estrangement from Gus. She’s magnetic enough to pull a strong performance from Justin Timberlake, whose job otherwise is to stand around and be likable, something he’s pretty good at doing. There’s a smattering of good baseball in here, including some of the lingo used (dead-red hitter, quick hands, using hips and legs for power), and the fact that the other main candidate for the draft pick in question goes to Arizona State. Micki knowing the hotel housekeeper’s name showed the kind of subtlety too absent in the script, showing she’s the kind of person who’d take the time to find that out and then remember it. But don’t ask me to believe that her law firm, which has no female partners, is seriously considering promoting another white male over her just because she’s tending to her ailing father.
A number of you asked on Twitter if the film was even worth seeing just because of its baseball content, but I’d say no, it’s not. Even aside from the baseball errata, it’s just a maudlin father-daughter story melded with an awkward romantic comedy involving the daughter and the younger rival scout. The emotions in the film almost never rang true for me, aside from a few moments where Adams gives the shaky script her best efforts, and the story is so predictable that there’s no narrative greed to keep you engaged.
As for the baseball stuff, this film really could have used a basic fact-checker, a consultant somewhere along the way to just say, “hey, this stuff is dead wrong, and someone on that Interweb is going to call you out on it.” Here’s just a list of stuff I wrote down that was absurd, in rough chronological order.
* Maybe the biggest error of all is the idea that nine days before the draft, Atlanta’s area scout (Gus) hasn’t seen the player in his area who’s a candidate for the second overall pick – and no one else in the organization has seen him either. That player would have been seen more than a dozen times by the area guy, every regional and national cross-checker, and the scouting director (an underutilized John Goodman), and possibly by a front-office exec or two since the player is within driving distance of Atlanta. The idea that this huge pick is hinging on one look less than two weeks before the draft is necessary to feed into the film’s mythologizing of old scouts, but in fact, it’s insulting to scouts of all ages by making their process seem more whimsical and less methodical.
* Gus’s resume is an impossibility. He’s a lifelong area scout in the Carolinas who signed Dusty Baker (Sacramento), Chipper Jones (Jacksonville), and Tom Glavine (Massachusetts)? He’s “only signed three guys in four years” … and that’s a bad thing? Some scouts go a year or two without signing any players because that’s how the draft goes. But the geography thing bothers me more – just pick players from the same region. It’s not that hard.
* Scouts don’t stay at rundown motels like the one where Gus, Johnny (Timberlake), and the others stay. We all like our frequent guest points way too much for that.
* The actor playing the phenom, Bo Gentry … I hate to say it, but for a baseball player, the kid is fat. The only legitimate prospect I can think of in the last five years to look like that is Dan Vogelbach, and he’s probably a DH who was never a consideration for that spot in the draft. When they refer to Gentry as a “five tool” player, they conveniently decline to list those tools, one of which – speed – is clearly not in Gentry’s toolbox. We never even see him field. Just find a more athletic actor and this issue goes away. I did love seeing Cocoa Carl from Good Eats playing Gentry’s dad.
* Gentry is a right-handed hitter, so why are all the scouts sitting on the third base side to scout him? You can’t see his hands from there – scouts want to see a hitter’s open side more than his closed side.
* Are there only five scouts in the whole industry, and only one of them under the age of 60?
* The draft-room scene mentioning a “draft and trade deal” … come on. You can’t trade draft picks in baseball.
* Gus mentions seeing a “hitch” in a player’s swing, which is a real thing – but it’s something even non-scouts can notice, and I didn’t see one in the movie. Besides, it’s not an automatic kill on a player – Hunter Pence has a hitch so big it looks like he stole it off a tractor-trailer and he’s done fairly well for himself.
* I’m okay with a film embellishing the drama of the draft room by implying that the decision on the second overall pick is being made in the final seconds before it’s made, but just for the record, no team operates like that. Reality probably isn’t dramatic enough for fiction in this case, though.
* I don’t think there’s any team that would say no to giving a left-handed teenager with an average fastball and an average (or better) curveball a tryout. It costs them nothing. And when the kid is good, no GM in the universe is going to be concerned with finding an agent for the kid – he’d try to sign the player before any agent got wind of it.
* A struggling minor league hitter gets better because his family came to visit him? That might be the film’s most insulting moment – and the entire thread is superfluous anyway, other than to further aggrandize Gus’ character at the expense of those evil computers.
* I’ll end with a point I’m not sure about. Gus mentions at one point the possibility of “putting a bullet in my head” when he can’t scout any more. I don’t know if that was a deliberate reference to Tony Lucadello, a longtime Phillies scout who did just that at age 77 when the team let him go, but I hope that it was, as Lucadello’s story is one worth remembering, even if the reference is a little morbid.
Strunk & White, Keith:
“It Stinks.”
P.S> Thanks for the detailed description, as now I am well-equipped to never, ever going to see this film, no matter how many people attempt to entice me. Your laundry-list of baseball complaints would literally have me screaming at the screen like a horror show.
Well, I wasn’t going to see that piece of garbage anyway, so I’m glad this just confirms my original decision. I’d rather watch real baseball for the next few weeks.
Took the Mrs to watch it Saturday for our anniversary. She liked it and didn’t get my complaints (several of which you touched on BTW). I can accept getting some technical baseball stuff wrong. Don’t like it but can live with it as so many sports movies have much more egregious errors. Biggest casting error was the kid they were scouting. Went overboard to make the kid an unlikable jock/jerk. Movie just seemed like they hurried to put it out and could have done a better job with the idea. Hope they didn’t spend too much making the flick because they aren’t making much from it. Theater we were at wasn’t even a quarter full. 15 maybe 20 people in attendance.
Well done Keith, though I am disappointed, it seems like eons since there has been a decent baseball film.
So, Amy Adams is in it?
If you’re going to rip apart a movie for being predictible and contrived, couldn’t you atleast join in and name the post “The Trouble With Trouble With the Curve”?
@ Michael
Agreed. You’re telling me that Wesley Snipes and Charlie Sheen couldn’t use the work that would come from “Major League 4”? (Not to mention Corbin Bernsen)
Incredible review. Had to bite my tongue the entire movie to avoid my wife’s wrath. Definitely better suited for Lifetime or Hallmark! Absolutely brutal film. However, I did blurt out “71 Orioles!” and “Bernie Carbo!” because I just couldn’t help myself. Got the skunk eye both times…
Saw and enjoyed the movie as a lite feel-good comedy. I would not expect a “modern day” scout who relies on computer printouts, videos and complex stats way too much and misses “the intangibles” that the super draftees have in addition to great talent to like the movie. The super talents are not just robots. I am not convinced that modern day scouts are great improvements over the oldtime scouts in evaluating baseball talent.
As a baseball fan, law school graduate, and one-time film student, this film managed to annoy me on every possible level. The lawyer dialogue was not as bad as the baseball stuff, but it had similar errors of its own.
What you say in the third paragraph is really the worst part–there’s a potentially excellent (perhaps not terribly original but still dramatically satisfying) story in there that’s being ruined.
Keith, all the criticism in the world doesn’t change the fact that this is a great movie. Clint Eastwood is a natural leader who singlehandedly wills this movie to the “mitts up” rating it deserves. And let’s not forget the intangibles Justin Timberlake provides throughout the film. Next time, try watching this movie in an actual theater rather than your mother’s basement.
This piece of crap will likely make 100 million dollars, while Ballplayer-Poletero will be seen by a few thousand people
your thoughts?
The comments by Robert (Sep, 24 2012 / 4:15 pm) and Joseph M. (Sep, 24 2012 / 6:53 pm) are incredible.
I got conned. It was inevitable I’d go to the theater to see this, with the local appeal, Clint Eastwood, and the adorable Amy Adams. But they took an interesting premise, a look at big league scouting along with it’s family angle, then plastered over it with an ABC After School Special storyline. The only characters with any depth are Eastwood and Adams, the rest varying degrees of caricature. They did everything to make the stat geek look bad except make him wear a black hat and mask. Timberlake always says the right thing now that his playing days have ended. Of course, he clammed up during his career about an injury which led to his downfall. And this is kind of a personal nitpick, but I didn’t like his car. How many modern athletes drive an early seventies Skylark convertible? As others have pointed out, the prospect was laughably out of shape, with a boastful and bullying attitude.
Just like any predictable after school special, the bad guys all get their due at the end, the handsome couple gets together, and our declining but venerable scout gets to name his role with the club. It’s difficult to hate a move featuring Amy Adams, who at various times dons a business suit & heels and later the tools of ignorance as she handles a hot southpaw prospect. But don’t go expecting anything close to baseball realism. One and a half stars.
So it’s basically Gran Torino with baseballs instead of Koreans.
I never intended nor ever intend to see this film, but it’s worth it just to hear you tear it apart. When it comes to writing negative reviews, you have few peers, Keith.
I’m disappointed that this review didn’t get as many comments as your Moneyball review.
Well, I just got back from this. Amazingly, my wife wanted to see this instead of “Looper.” Of course, having read this review beforehand (and your Twitter remark about you being 1 of 3 people in your theatre) I noticed a few things:
-Granted it was Saturday night, but the place was packed. I was, um, expecting 3 people
-You mentioned the scouts sat on the third base side. I kept looking for that and I don’t remember seeing it. The closest thing to it was what I think was the second game where they were sitting behind home plate. Then Clint told Amy Adams specifically to go to the third base side to check Bo’s hips. But every other time it seemed like everyone was on the first base side. (Unless you meant the Evil Scout sent to check on Clint. Then, yeah, he was always sitting on the hill on the third base side.)
-I caught when Matthew Lillard said “draft and trade” as you mentioned. But you say “come on, you can’t trade draft picks.” But wouldn’t “draft and trade” be when you draft a player, then trade him? I’m pretty sure this never happens with first rounders, but is it not allowed?
-One thing you left out which is obviously a baseball movie contrivance: I think we can safely assume Bo Gentry either bats 3rd or 4th on his team. Heck, if he’s the next Albert Pujols, it’s probably 3rd. So why in the world in a championship game is the skinny buck ten pound kid with the glasses who can barely hold the bat up hitting in front of Bo? Unless his specialty was David Eckstein ability of leaning into pitches.
-One other thing: when you present yourself as serious about the subject you’re covering, you have to play by the rules you establish. Since the movie mentions Dusty Baker, Sandy Koufax, Chipper Jones, and all the pitchers Reggie homered off of, what’s with the alternate universe it creates where the Red Sox have the #1 pick and the Braves have the #2 pick?
-Clearly the movie was not aimed at pretty much anyone that would be posting on Klaw’s site; rather, more like aimed at the woman in front of me who openly cheered when the T-1000, er, Robert Patrick fired Shaggy. Actually, most of the crowd was pretty enthusiastic (though, nobody cheered when Jackie Robinson flipped his bat after homering in the trailer). Me, I wished we had seen “Looper.”
Tom,
Draft picks cannot be traded, and players cannot be traded until a year after their draft date. So any draft and trade would be illogical.
“like the kid in driver’s ed who thinks the goal is to knock over every cone. ”
Heh, when I first read this sentence I thought you were saying this was an actual scene from the movie.
This doesn’t change the overall authenticity or credibility of the film, or the validity of your critique, however…
I live near the High School where the scenes at the Grizzlies home field were filmed, and walked over to watch some of the movie being made. They painted everything (and back again a week later) but didn’t move the bleachers (or anything else) along the first base line. They’re small and on a hillside right below where Justin Timberlake screeches into the parking lot. There is no hillside on the third base side, just a track and soccer field behind the visitor dugout. The scouts, the fans, and peanut boy, are all between home and first. The spying Braves scout may be depicted differently, but irl he’s on the hillside, too.
You said it! I just watched with friends and I could not help but call BS on so many “baseball references”. Too much focus on drama to get real baseball fans to like it, and I’m a huge Braves fan(the reason I finally watched the movie) the game and business of baseball is so much different than this movie depicts its not even funny. Great review, totally agree with you on all levels. Go Braves!
If we’re going to nitpick, can we at least get the name of a girl named after Mickey Mantle correct?
(I’m assuming she wasn’t named after an obscure ball player named Micki Mantle.)
OK, that off my chest, the movie was awful. You are correct about that. My wife rented it and forced me to sit through it. Just brutal. I can handle the fake drama of the scouting stuff, war room, etc. if the 18 year old had remotely looked like an athlete. Just brutal casting there (and Lillard).
Saw this on plane 2 nights ago.
Stay as far away as possible. Horrible, horrible film.
Saw the movie this weekend in visiting family and some things stuck out:
1) I literally laughed when they said the kid in NC was five tools. My initial response was: “he’s too much of a fata$$ to run
2) Gentry couldn’t hit either a top end fastball or top end curveball but was up for the No. 1 pick in the draft? Didn’t the kid play against better competition than the NC high school league?
3) Why was there no makeup check on Gentry? Clearly, he’s a shit. Why draft the next Carl Crawford? Is there no AAU league for high school baseball players?
4) I know it’s part of the story, but seriously, I’d fire a blind baseball scout who relied upon hearing. That’s insane. It’s like relying upon an astrophysicist who never learned basic math because he knows what a rocket should sound like.
That said, I kinda liked the movie because I love baseball and scouting so there it is.
I thought the movie was great, but I also thought Moneyball was great. Appreciate movies for what they are….entertainment. Every baseball fan was annoyed how Moneyball made it seem like saber metrics built that team, but failed to mention having Barry Zito, Mark Mulder, and Tim Hudson was a large portion of the success. They try to sell it was an offense full of Scott Hatteberg’s, and fail to mention the AL MVP, Miguel Tejada. Trouble with the Curve is a great movie, just appreciate a movie that shows scouts some love.
Shoeless Joe bats right handed in Field of Dreams, but that huge mess up does not ruin the movie for me either.