Sliding Safely into Second
I'm not sure what the statistics are, but I feel that most sports movies revolve around baseball, at least, the popular ones do. This is all fine by me considering what huge fan of baseball I am, but occasionally you'll get a movie that completely misses the mark. Trouble with the Curve certainly isn't a bad movie, but should it be enshrined in the Baseball Movie Hall of Fame? Probably not.
Clint Eastwood has seemed to have settled into the role of cranky, old man, which may or may not be difficult to do because it seems as though that's what he's always like. However, this character worked for the movie and helped to establish a very real emotional disconnection between himself and Amy Adams. The relationship detailed between these two works, and is further complimented by the seemingly perpetual supporting role of John Goodman.
It isn't until Justin Timberlake gets thrown in the mix that things start to derail. For an actor who lists The Love Guru on his résumé, it is difficult to get too excited about J.T. However, he showed some promise with his role on The Social Network. Despite this, Timberlake's character was not all that authentic. I almost expected him to break out into song at some point. Don't get me wrong, he didn't single-handedly take down this movie (part of the blame lies with shallow writing), but this part certainly could have been casted better.
So, no, this movie is not a home run, but it's hard to go wrong with Clint Eastwood. If you are a fan of baseball movies, you should go out and add this one to your repertoire, but otherwise it's nothing special.
Written May 10, 2013
Clint Eastwood has seemed to have settled into the role of cranky, old man, which may or may not be difficult to do because it seems as though that's what he's always like. However, this character worked for the movie and helped to establish a very real emotional disconnection between himself and Amy Adams. The relationship detailed between these two works, and is further complimented by the seemingly perpetual supporting role of John Goodman.
It isn't until Justin Timberlake gets thrown in the mix that things start to derail. For an actor who lists The Love Guru on his résumé, it is difficult to get too excited about J.T. However, he showed some promise with his role on The Social Network. Despite this, Timberlake's character was not all that authentic. I almost expected him to break out into song at some point. Don't get me wrong, he didn't single-handedly take down this movie (part of the blame lies with shallow writing), but this part certainly could have been casted better.
So, no, this movie is not a home run, but it's hard to go wrong with Clint Eastwood. If you are a fan of baseball movies, you should go out and add this one to your repertoire, but otherwise it's nothing special.
Written May 10, 2013