Trouble with the Curve

In keeping with his new public image, Clint Eastwood, 82, not only yells at a chair, he kicks a coffee table and curses his garage door in the drama Trouble With the Curve. Eastwood is in fine form as Gus, an ex-baseball player and aging baseball scout for the Atlanta Braves. He stubbornly refuses to retire, even though he’s losing his eyesight. His daughter, Mickey (Amy Adams), a corporate lawyer worried about her irascible dad’s health, reluctantly joins him on a recruiting trip. On a road trip filled with honky-tonks and cheap motels, Mickey reconnects with her neglectful dad, falls for rival scout Johnny (perpetual juvenile Justin Timberlake) and recaptures her passion for the game. The elements of the film that focus on baseball are the most successful, but Randy Brown’s script spends too much time on Mickey and Johnny’s tepid romance rather than the fascinating art of determining what makes a great hitter.