Trouble with the Curve

Robert Lorenz spent years producing for Clint Eastwood and holds 3 best picture Academy Award nominations as a producer, for Mystic River, Letters from Iwo Jima and American Sniper. This is the first film he directed. For Eastwood it was a return of another kind. It was his first acting job since Gran Torino, and his first acting role in a film he did not direct since his brief appearance in Casper in 1995. Gus Lobel scouts for the Atlanta Braves and his eyes are going. The club is shifting towards statistics while Gus trusts his ear and his habits. His daughter Mickey has the same ear: at the close she picks out a young pitcher from the sound of the ball hitting the glove. Shooting took place in Georgia and North Carolina, using Turner Field in Atlanta and Luther Williams Field in Macon. Against a 60 million dollar budget the worldwide take stopped at 49 million. At the AARP Movies for Grownups Awards it was nominated for best intergenerational story and lost to Silver Linings Playbook. A good fit if you want the argument between experience and data used as ground for a reckoning between a father and a daughter. Not for anyone expecting a surprising shape; the events run along a line you can see coming.