REVIEW | Trouble with the Curve (2012)

If you want to momentarily take a break from movies with heavy visuals and complicated plots, and want to see a refreshingly light and "normal" movie, then  Trouble with the Curve will satisfy that thirst.

Set in suburban North Carolina in cool blue shades, with open skies and open roads and baseball games, Trouble with a Curve is a real breather from the current line-up at the cinemas; a soothing medicine for stressed out  moviegoers.

The sports drama tells the story of Gus Lobel (Clint Eastwood), a super old senior baseball scout for Atlanta Braves whose eyesight is already deteriorating. Sent by his company on a trip to North Carolina to recruit a promising young hitter, he is joined by his estranged daughter Mickey (Amy Adams) to assist him and help him keep his job, but their trip soon becomes bumpy with their father-daughter issues.

Trouble with the Curve, directed by Robert Lorenz, is a solid narrative that is smooth to follow. Although the movie is obviously refuting sabermetrics, the statistics-based recruitment process championed by last year's brilliant sports movie masterpiece Moneyball, the heart of the movie is the father-daughter relationship between Gus and Mickey.

Penned by newcomer Randy Brown, some of the dialogue are painfully cliche-ish, but the strong presence and highly engaging performances of Adams and the snarling Eastwood override the cheesy lines. The movie is also devoid of sophistication; sometimes with a feel of an  unpolished amateur home video, and with actors that were seemingly left alone on their acting craft. But since the entire cast is made up of competent actors, including Matthew Lilliard and Justine Timberlake, you become thoroughly engaged in the story.

What is fascinating and astonishing with Trouble wit the Curve is despite Amy Adams' weird walk, its sometimes shallow dialogue, and its lack of cinematic elegance, the movie's got a heart and soul. The film's simplicity is its charm; the actors are its strength, and its heartwarming and oftentimes-funny pocketbook-like story is its beauty. Indeed, Trouble with the Curve is highly absorbing and feels like reading a good book in a blissful afternoon, in a perfect weather. 

3.5 out of 5 stars

Showing in Philippine Cinemas November 28, 2012