Batting .300

Baseball can be odd.   They call a good hitter somebody who can hit .300 or above.  You know what that means?   He makes out seventy percent of the time.  He is unsuccessful at what he does over two-thirds of his at-bats. 

Does the same numbers comparison work for movies?  In the case of Clint Eastwood's newest film, "Trouble with the Curve," yes, it sure does.  Because here's a movie that is utterly predictable, very uninspired with its dialogue, and essentially just passable as an evening's entertainment.

Yet, despite all those reasonably negative words, I liked it.  Seventy percent of the movie is not great.   But, it still hits .300.  Go figure.  There are some films that work in spite of themselves.

Coming on the heels of last year's ultra-wonderful "Moneyball," this movie tries to be as intuitive and insightful about the business of baseball but doesn't have the true life underpinnings to get that done.  Whereas "Moneyball" was about a real person, Oakland Athletics General Manager Billy Beane, "Trouble with the Curve" has no such roots.  As a result, some of its plotpoints seem a little false and contrived. 

Yet, still, in some magical way, entertaining.  There's that .300 batting average again.

Clint Eastwood stars and, for once, didn't direct his own work.  Perhaps he was too busy planning how to arrange empty furniture at the recent Republican National Convention.  Nevertheless, Clint on screen in any fashion is better than most of the other stars gracing today's multiplexes.  And, as he gets older, he finds it easier and easier to bring a crotchety-ness to his characters.  Heck, he is old, so he might as well use it to his advantage.

In "Trouble with the Curve," Eastwood is an Atlanta Braves scout who is assigned to sign what could be the newest rookie phenom now playing in high school.  There's a lot of interest in big and hulky Bo Gentry, played by an actor who was clearly in his late 20s.  The guy looks like Bluto and seems to be years beyond the other kids that are populating the teams in the film.  Regardless of how miscast the role is, Clint is supposed to assess the viability of signing this lummox.  Other teams are interested, one of them being the Boston Red Sox.  Their scout is a former pitching phenom himself and played oddly by Justin Timberlake who looks about as much like a baseball player as I do.  Hint: I do not and never did. 

With this signing destined to be the deciding factor in whether the Braves will renew Clint's contract as a scout, he certainly is up against the wall.  And then we learn his eyes are going.  What's a baseball scout to do?  Luckily, Clint's on-screen daughter knows the game and can serve as his vision.  Meanwhile, she's at odds with her own career as a lawyer and never did really get along with her dad when he was trying to be a single parent.  That's the cue for almost 90 minutes of verbal banter between the two, which could have been more efficiently handled in two pages of dialogue.  Yeah, they are dysfunctional.  Got it. 

Amy Adams plays the daughter and does her usual top-notch job.  The only problem is that the writers felt a need to tie her into the Timberlake character for some push-me-pull-me romance and the almost now standard skinny dipping scene.  Meanwhile, she looks about ten years older than Timberlake and might be closer to the age of the actor that's playing the 17-year-old Bo Gentry.  Trust me.  In that 70 percent where the film does not work, there are plenty of yawns.

But, still, I liked it. 

You know how this movie is going to start.  You know where it's going.  And, except for one small surprise, you know how it will end.  A scenario which will scream to most people. 

"Why the hell did you even bother to go see it?"

Well, there is professionalism amongst most of the cast, most notably Eastwood, Adams, and, as a Braves front office guy, the always dependable John Goodman.  The production values are decent.  You fidget and squirm a bit, but, miraculously, your team ultimately wins.  Okay, there weren't a lot of homeruns.  But, there were singles, some walks, and a double or two.  There are other ways to score some Hollywood runs.

So what if it only hits .300?  In a weak hitting film season, that's more than enough.  You're not going to bat "Trouble with the Curve" clean-up.  But, as a crafty and reliable hitter in the second spot of the line-up, it sure does know how to move the runner into scoring position.

Dinner last night:  Had a big burger for lunch, so just a salad.