Trouble with the Curve proved me right: this film is about old and new, about the old times when baseball was the king, when it was considered sport and art at the same time, when it was more about the spirit, less about the money, when not computer statistics decided upon talent but highly devoted eyes of an expert.
Our baseball-fanatic devoted eye (Gus Luden played by Clint Eastwood) is about to lose his sight and his scouting contract in the same period of his life (dark clouds, innit?). What could only help is family – that Gus also lacks of. Actually he has a pretty successful daughter (Mickey, played by Amy Adams) but their relationship is somewhat cold. Gus lost his wife when his daughter was only six. Soon after this, Gus decided to leave his daughter and let her uncle raise her up instead of him.
Well, this family part of the story is what I like the most: the film suggests that family is such a bond that cannot be cut off, even when your family got messy because of a tragic death of a loved one or when you work thousand miles apart. When trouble comes, you can cling to family and not just by bowing down at your wife’s tomb and quoting Johnny Cash’s You Are My Sunshine, but a long-time no-see daughter can just as well turn up to clean the mess in your eyes and get back you on track.
At one point of the film, you realise that actually it is not losing the eye sight that is the problem: a long-damaged father-daughter relationship needs to be mended, scars need to be healed. The emphasis is on this string of the story so much that you even forget to keep your fingers crossed for Mickey and Johnny (which is fine, this touch makes the film different).
Although I have got to admit I enjoy their dialogue maybe too much in the part when Mickey (the daughter) enters the pub and Johnny (played by Justin Suit-and-Tie Timberlake) asks for a date. The Dad is there, giving Johnny some backwind:
JOHNNY: You can buy me a drink if you want [...]Finally they do get out and that is when Johnny turns out to be pretty similar to Mickey’s dad: a baseball fanatic who lost his job (was a baseball player) because of a body-disfunction (his left arm got injured) – this is what makes his presence legitimate in the story.
MICKEY: I don’t feel so right, right now.
GUS: Get out.
MICKEY: What?
GUS: Go. What did you do? Go out. Meet some people. Have some fun, you hang around here.
MICKEY: Thank you, I meet plenty of people.
GUS: You are single, aren’t you?
MICKEY: Yes, I am still single, very single.
JOHNNY: Maybe you are emotionally unavailable.
MICKEY: Emotionally unavailable? Who are you, Dr Phil?
JOHNNY: Hey, that is quality television!
MICKEY: And by the way, if I am emotionally unavailable, [turning to Johnny] which I’m not, thank you very much, [turning back to her father] it would be because of you.
GUS: Just go with him, Jesus Christ.
JOHNNY: We’re gotta get a camera crew following you guys around. The Kardashians are nothing with the two of you. Poor Bruce.
GUS: Come on, just the two of you – get out.
His restart is a message to Gus. Johnny became a scouter after his retirement from his baseball career. When thinking about signing a young prospect, Johnny gets the advice from Gus that the young player might perform well now, but he has got trouble with the curve - so his hand is hurt and could not handle the pressure of being a professional player (Alanis Morrisette would at this point wonder if it is ironic or not).
I am not going to tell you if Gus was right, but I hint that the script is full of these kinds of symbolic meanings. In the beginning of the film, the company thought they needed a new blood in scouting and in the end they get their new blood, but in a different way they have expected. Mickey’s mobile phone that is always in her hands get dropped into trash at the end – this also holds a message , just as the last lines of Gus saying he may try to do things differently (Mickey’s answer hit it, too “You already did”).
So, my instincts did not fail when I chose this movie. Before watching it, I had no idea what trouble with the curve would mean. But after seeing it, I find that I have quite a few experiences, too, with having some trouble with certain curves. I don’t know much about baseball, but I know I have a keen interest in topics film-makers attach to it: family, traditional values and thinking, old and new emerging, true talent and spirit – good stuff we can all learn about. And these are the kind of stories I like.
No comments:
Post a Comment