The New Movie of the Week is...

Since I never got around to posting a new movie review last week, I’m making up for it this week. The first new movie of this week is the Clint Eastwood drama Trouble With the Curve.

The movie stars Clint Eastwood as Gus Lobel, aging baseball scout for the Atlanta Braves; Amy Adams as Mickey Lobel, Gus’s daughter; and Justin Timberlake as Johnny, a once promising baseball player turned scout. John Goodman also has a role in the film as Gus’s friend and coworker. 

From the trailer you can tell that Trouble With the Curve is going to be an Eastwood vehicle filled with one-liners and his signature growl. Eastwood’s character Gus is a baseball scout who once had a reputation for scouting the best talent, but is being phased out by technology. It doesn’t help that he is also having vision problems, which is a major problem when a big part of the job is watching baseball games. Eastwood is given one last chance and is sent down to North Carolina to scout a high school star. Gus’s relationship with his daughter Mickey (Adams) is obviously strained. However, even with a big promotion on the table, she drops everything to help him in North Carolina, whether he wants her there or not. Since Gus is a crotchety, stubborn old man, drama ensues with his daughter trying to help. To add some more spice into the mix, one of the players Gus had scouted, Johnny (Timberlake) shows up to do some scouting of his own; of both the player and Mickey. 

photo courtesy of imdb.com

For Eastwood fans, going to see Trouble With the Curve should be a good movie to go see Clint do what he does best. For me, as much as I love Clint Eastwood, I’m more excited to see how Amy Adams does playing his daughter. Adams may not have as many Academy Award nominations as Eastwood, but the three she does have are pretty impressive. Since coming on the radar in 2005’s independent film Junebug and really making her name known in Disney’s 2007 fairytale Enchanted, Adams has proven herself as a talented actress. I’m hoping to see her keep up with that reputation, and also see how she does holding her own against Eastwood. I’m hoping to see some good father-daughter chemistry and banter. I’m also excited to see how Matthew Lillard does in his supporting role as Phillip Sanderson, as one of Gus’s bosses. Lillard had a promising career in the ’90’s and early 2000’s, but hadn't had any big roles for a while until he made somewhat of a comeback in George Clooney’s The Descendants last year.

Another thing I’m looking for when I go see Trouble With the Curve is that I don’t wind up confused. I don’t really follow baseball. At all. So, I’m hoping that the movie doesn’t confuse those of us who don’t know much about the game, but are still interested in the movie. Hopefully there will be a balance.

I’ll have my full review up for tomorrow. You can find out then if the movie and actors lived up to my expectations.