Directed by Robert Lorenz.
2012. Rated PG-13, 111 minutes.
Cast:
Chelcie Ross
George Wyner
Joe Massingill
Ed Lauter
Tom Nowicki
Gus Lobel (Eastwood) has been a baseball scout for the
Atlanta Braves for forever and a day. He loves the game so much he even named
his daughter Mickey (Adams) after Mickey Mantle, his all-time favorite player.
As it eventually happens to most of us, Gus’ eyes are going on him. That’s an
even bigger deal than normal given his job. It doesn't help that Philip
(Lillard), the young hotshot in the front-office wants to phase him out and
rely much more heavily on his new fangled computers.
Luckily for Gus, he’s still got one friend who thinks like
him and is willing to go to bat for him. That’s Pete (Goodman), who also works
in the front-office. He figures out what’s wrong with his buddy and, in hopes
of saving Gus’ job, convinces Mickey to tag along with her dad on a scouting
trip to watch highly-touted prospect Bo Gentry (Massingill). Bo literally gets
a hit on the first pitch of every at-bat until the plot requires otherwise.
Since he’s so good, he is also an insufferable jackass. Scouting Bo aside, the
real question is whether Gus and Mickey can survive each other. They don’t have
much of a relationship mostly because Gus is a crotchety old dude who isn't happy unless he’s ripping someone a new one. Think Clint’s character from Gran Torino sans racism and cool car.
Watching Eastwood and Adams play off one another is somewhat
intriguing. They combine to create a genuine portrayal of two people who care
for each other but can’t communicate without it getting testy. A little less
effective is the telegraphed-from-a-mile-away romance between Adams’ character
and Johnny “Flame” Flanagan played by Justin Timberlake. He’s a former pitcher
once scouted by Gus who is now a rival scout for the Boston Red Sox. Some of
their scenes together are fun, especially if you enjoy baseball trivia.
Unfortunately, her overly pushy boyfriend treating their relationship like
a business transaction plus the fact that Flanagan is the only other scout that doesn't qualify for AARP makes it feel too preordained for us to get worked up about.
Things go along well enough for a good deal of the run time, but dammit, we've got problems to solve. Best handled of these is Gus and
Mickey’s relationship. It feels like a logical resolution. On the other end of
the spectrum is Gus’ work issue and Mickey’s love affair. That love thing is
handled exactly like you suspect it will be but were praying the filmmakers aren't that lazy. Sorry, they are.
That work issue is even more ridiculous. Being a baseball
fan with friends who shun the hordes of new statistics out there, I am acutely
aware that this movie plays as the exact counter-argument to the Brad Pitt
flick Moneyball. Even so, what this movie comes up with is
just way too contrived for its own good. Basically, it’s “look what fell out of
the sky!” What we’re left with is a film that plucks along in an occasionally
interesting manner, thanks to the performances of its leads, but never quite
gets us emotionally involved enough to buy the ending.
MY SCORE: 5.5/10
Good review Wendell. Everybody’s good, but the story was nothing worth recommending one bit. It’s a pleasant enough time, but could have been a whole lot better.
ReplyDeleteExactly. It's one of those movies that I didn't hate, but kept waiting on it to get better which it never did. Thanks!
ReplyDelete