Trouble With The Curve

A very funny bit in In & Out is where Glenn Close rattles off the names of the Oscar nominees: fellow best actor nominee Paul Newman for "Coot", Clint Eastwood for "Codger", Michael Douglas for "Primary Urges". In Trouble with the Curve, Eastwood does indeed play his stock codger character, this time in the guise of a baseball scout who's going blind. His lawyer daughter, up for a promotion to partner, played by Amy Adams, goes on the road with him to scout one last player that the computers claim is the next star. Except even a blind codger can figure out some stuff with his ears that a computer can't. Justin Timberlake appears as a pitcher Eastwood recruited years ago, who (now that he's blown out his arm) is the scout for another team and the potential romantic interest for the daughter. Lots of predictable repair of the relationship between father and daughter. Lots of baseball statistics thrown around. Net net, though, we should have spent the evening bingeing on season 1 of Kevin Spacey's House of Cards.