Trouble with the Curve

After 2008's Grand Torino, Clint Eastwood announced his retirement from acting, but I suppose helping his longtime producer and assistant director Robert Lopez ease into the director's chair coaxed him back in front of the camera. Die-hard Eastwood fans like me will be glad. Trouble with the Curve is very much like the family-friendly films Eastwood made in the late '70s and early '80s, like Bronco Billy and Honkytonk Man. In fact, this whole movie is very much a throwback to a 30-year-old style of filmmaking, which is fine by me, although this one is less Bull Durham and more Bad News Bears—which we almost feel like we're watching when Eastwood utters this film's titular line.

Your enjoyment of this picture will depend entirely on how big an Eastwood fan you are, but there are other pleasures to be found. Amy Adams is terrific playing the requisite role of the estranged daughter to the crotchety, old, set-in-his-ways Eastwood character. She's sharp, vulnerable, and sexy, and she more than holds up her end of the picture.

The film plays like an old Hollywood counterpoint to last year's Moneyball. Whereas Bennett Miller's solid but cold film about young number-crunchers who can put together a winning baseball team better than the old farts who had been doing it the same way forever, the wobbly but warm Trouble With the Curve is the old farts telling those young punks to "Get the hell off my lawn!"