Trouble With the Curve is the latest Clint Eastwood film and you can think of it as the anti-Money Ball.  In the Bizarro World Brad Pitt is Clint.  Jonah Hill is Justin Timberlake.  And Robert Lorenz goes from Second Director on a dozen prior Eastwood films to director…..with Randy Brown, a first time writer, getting his first shot in the big leagues.  Unfortunately, these rookies are not able to take an all-star cast like Eastwood, Timberlake and Amy Adams into the post-season with this mediocre script and genuinely minor league direction.

This was a mildly entertaining movie with a few good moments and lots of bad ones.  I almost can’t believe a great director like Clint would allow himself to sing a painful rendition of You Are My Sunshine at his wife’s grave….This from the man who sung in Letters From Iwo Jima and Honkeytonk Man and left indelible POSITIVE impressions from both.  Amy Adams was her normal pointy-nosed chipper self, with a somewhat more wizened shell.  Meanwhile Timberlake was his normal cool self.  John Goodman may have been the bet thing about this film since he is so realistic in anything he does.

Clint is a washed-up, half-blind major league scout watching high school games in search of talent.  He is also father to Amy and mentor to Justin.  This is the unrealistic triumph of pork and beans over Ferragamo.  Family values trump courtroom success.  Luddite ways bet out digital data geeks.  And everyone goes skinny-dipping except with u-trou on.  In what Bizarro Universe does Timberlake settle or a simple good-night kiss….. for 5 dates.

There is no investment play here.  Partnership in a big Atlanta law firm means nothing next to a good ballpark dog and a beat-up rag top.