You do not have to be a baseball fan to enjoy and relate to this new movie out in Theaters now called “Trouble with the Curve”. The overall topic of this movie relates to baseball but this movie is more about relationships and how we deal when a relationship has gone sour. A father’s love is strong but sometimes does not always get expressed in the best ways possible. A daughter no matter how old will always need her father and in this movie viewers see how two people can come together for a common good and understanding.
The main characters are played by Clint Eastwood, Amy Adams, John Goodman, Justin Timberlake and Matthew Lillard and all these characters end up helping each other achieve and find their purpose in life. Each character sees their life going in a different direction than they really want for themselves. Mickey, played by Amy Adams, works as a lawyer day in and day out hoping to make partner in the company she is with. Mickey felt trapped and delved into her job as a way to cope but she was only fooling herself that she was really happy. Mckey longed for something more from her life that she was not getting. Mickey needed what was missing from her life and that was a father who was present to her. Clint Eastwood, Gus, who played her father, was absent for a portion of her life and that affected his daughter more than he knew and could begin to understand. Mickey’s mother died when she was just 6 years old and being an only child her father was all she had except her job.
Gus, played by Clint Eastwood, was a baseball scout and Mickey knew more about baseball than she let people know and she learned it all from her father. Mickey grew up on baseball and loved it dearly. Her father did not want to give her life in the cheap seats but Mickey said that if growing up enjoying life with her father, eating food that was bad for her and if staying up late was considered to her father as life in the cheap seats then she wanted it more than anything. To her those were the best things in life and she missed them greatly.
Mickey knew that her father was getting older but she did not know how much of a hard time he was having until John Goodman, who was her father’s best friend, called her up and told her that it would be in her best interests to take time off and see her father who lived somewhat of a distance away from her. She told her father’s friend that she was simply way too busy with work and John Goodman did not understand how she could refuse to see her father.
Mickey and her father loved each other very much but never saw eye to eye. Mickey felt happier when she was working and doing her own thing in life away from her father, so she thought. Deep down Mickey really did miss her father and was lonely with only her work to keep her busy. Mickey rethought about what her father’s friend said and told her office that she needed a couple of days off and that it was very important.
Mickey showed up at a baseball game that her father was at one afternoon to be greeted with him saying go back home and live your own life. He was not too happy to see her but maybe deep down he was happy but had a terrible time showing it. Mickey told her father that she took time off from work and that she was staying for a couple of days no matter what he said. There was no sending Mickey back home. Her father’s friend loved her father very much and, if he said that her father needed, her she believed him and knew it must be of great importance.
Gus recently went to the eye doctor and his eyes were getting bad and he could not see well anymore and Mickey wanted him to take care of himself but he refused. Her father was a vey stubborn man and that might be a contributing factor to them not getting along so well. While Mickey was staying with her father, she went to several baseball games and watched her father scout out this one young player. He was deciding if this kid should go into the major leagues. In a few months her father’s contract was up and he would be out of a job so making the right decision about this kid was super important. It felt like old times for Mickey being out on the baseball field again.
One day while on the field with her dad a young guy came up to her father and asked him if he remembered him. This young guy, played by Justin Timberlake, was on her father’s team when he was little and he told them both how much he loved that time in his life. Justin Timberlake was a flirt and could not keep his eyes off Mickey and kept asking her out but she kept refusing. Mickey was not into getting involved with anything or anyone except for helping her father because that was the only reason why she had taken off from work. She was not going to let any guy distract her from getting back to her job as soon as a possible.
Her father hung out in the local bar almost every night and this particular night Mickey followed her father there. Her father did not really want her there but she kept reminding him that she was a grown woman and was tough enough to handle herself, since her father had not been around much for her. At the bar she ran into Justin Timberlake again and her father told them to take a chance on each other and go have a good time together because his daughter seemed so miserable. She went out with Justin Timberlake and to her surprise she actually had a good time but was afraid to get too close to anyone.
The title of this movie has a couple of meanings. When you think of a curve you think of a pitch by a baseball player but the curve in this movie meant the curve that life throws your way. Mickey and her father had an extremely hard time expressing themselves to one another and were both afraid to let each other in. It was clear to viewers that Mickey and her father needed to let down their guard and express to one another the truth about how they were feeling and Justin Timberlake was the man who in a hidden way broke the ice for that to happen. Justin Timberlake liked Mickey and her father very much and knew they were both great people who were trapped in lives they both wished were different. Justin Timberlake saw that her father’s job was about to end and that the other scout, played by Matthew Lillard, would probably take over if her father’s vision to make a certain kid pro was the wrong choice.
Trouble with the Curve” was 111 minutes of pure love and hope. My favorite part was when Clint Eastwood went to visit his wife’s grave and he knelt down to sing the song “You are my Sunshine” to her. That part really touched me since my grandfather died just a little over a year ago and that was the song I sang to him at his memorial. You saw a man that was broken down and needed love but had a hard time accepting it and having his daughter with him for those couple of days help turn things around for him. His daughter was everything he could have hoped for but she did not think her father was very proud of her since he left her to live with other family when she was growing up. They both needed to know that the other one cared. Mickey indeed did make her father very proud because she was an extremely smart young woman and Mickey does something in this movie that is remarkable that you will have to watch for yourself to find out.
This movie brings together two people who lost their way but are learning to love each other all over again. Me, the critic, would give this movie an 8 out of 10 rating. It is never too late to start over and realize what is important in life. Mickey no longer was going to spend everyday working but rather now was going to enjoy life with her father in the cheep seats, as he would call it.
The first video is the “Trouble with the Curve” official trailer. The second video of an interview with actress Amy Adams. The third video is of an interview with actor Clint Eastwood. The forth and last video is of an interview with actor and singer Justin Timberlake.
