Trouble with the Curve
Warner Bros. Pictures | Release Date: September 21, 2012 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
58
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 40 Critic Reviews
Positive:
17
Mixed:
20
Negative:
3
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
80
VarietyJustin ChangSep 17, 2012
A defiantly analog rejoinder to last year's tech-savvy baseball drama, "Moneyball," Robert Lorenz's square but sturdy directing debut rests on the wonderfully spiky chemistry between Eastwood and Amy Adams. Read full review
80
Boxoffice MagazinePete HammondSep 17, 2012
Clint Eastwood and a superb cast hit it out of the park in Trouble With The Curve, a great entertainment filled with heart, humor, family drama and fantastic acting. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthySep 17, 2012
Eastwood is vastly entertaining as an old-fashioned scout who disdains computers and fancy statistical charts in favor of his own time-tested instincts. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsSep 20, 2012
Wholly predictable yet serenely enjoyable. Read full review
75
The A.V. ClubKeith PhippsSep 19, 2012
In Trouble With The Curve, Eastwood plays a reminder of an older way of doing things, a professional whose likes the world won't see again once he's gone. The role isn't much of a stretch. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertSep 19, 2012
Trouble With the Curve isn't a great sports film, like Eastwood's "Million Dollar Baby" (2004). But it's a superior entertainment, moving down somewhat predictable paths with an authenticity and humanity that appeals. Read full review
70
The New YorkerDavid DenbyOct 7, 2012
The intricate baseball knowledge that gets passed back and forth among the characters in Trouble with the Curve is much more interesting than the moral simplicities that the movie offers. [8 Oct. 2012, p.87]
70
The New York TimesA.O. ScottSep 20, 2012
Regrettably, it is not a home run or a perfect game, but it isn't a wild throw, an errant bunt or a dropped fly ball either. Trouble With the Curve is either an off-speed pitch that just catches the edge of the strike zone or a bloop single lofted into right field. The runner is safe. The movie is too. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesKenneth TuranSep 20, 2012
This amiable, old-fashioned film is no world-beater, but it underlines why, appearances with empty chairs excepted, it is always a pleasure to see this man on the screen. Read full review
70
TimeRichard CorlissSep 20, 2012
If the modest and moving Trouble With the Curve won't overwhelm anybody, it's still an engaging winner, like a junk-ball pitcher who stays in the bigs on grit and heart. Read full review
70
Village VoiceNick PinkertonSep 18, 2012
Here is the irony: Trouble With the Curve embodies all of the values it espouses - it is an old-fashioned, proficient, amiable, and decent movie - but it has no instinct. Read full review
67
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerSep 21, 2012
What you get in Trouble with the Curve is standard-issue late-career Eastwoodiana. The growl, the snarl, the crotchetiness are already familiar to us from "Million Dollar Baby" (2004) and "Gran Torino" (2009), his last appearance as an actor. Read full review
65
NPRMark JenkinsSep 20, 2012
Predictable but appealing, Trouble with the Curve is the latest of Clint Eastwood's odes to old-fashioned attitudes and virtues. Read full review
63
New York PostKyle SmithSep 20, 2012
Baseball movies tend to be lyrical, deeply felt, aggressively metaphorical and (consequently) terrible, but Trouble With the Curve has something most others lack: Eastwood's superb, cruel sense of humor, which reaches all the way back to "Every Which Way But Loose." Read full review
63
Philadelphia InquirerCarrie RickeySep 20, 2012
The good news is that this daddy/daughter reconciliation story connects with the ball. The not-so-good: It's a blooper. Read full review
63
Rolling StonePeter TraversSep 20, 2012
Eastwood and Adams are just so much damn fun to watch. Read full review
63
Boston GlobeTy BurrSep 20, 2012
The script is by first-timer Randy Brown, but it feels as if it were spit out by one of the assistant GM's computers, so regular are its beats and revelations. Read full review
60
EmpireMark DinningNov 26, 2012
You'll know exactly where it's going, but it still has Clint doing full-on-cranky and is a fun finger-up at corporate suits the world over. Read full review
60
Total FilmNeil SmithNov 25, 2012
Saluting both America's national pastime and its oldest working icon, Curve is a solid heart-tugger that plays with a straight bat when it comes to plot, character and message. Read full review
60
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinSep 22, 2012
As cheap as the whole set-up is, the actors make wonderful music together - even if there's not much left of Eastwood's vocal cords except a handful of dust. Read full review
60
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottSep 21, 2012
Ends up being the kind of movie we don't see a whole lot anymore: an emotionally grounded and quietly meaningful crowd-pleaser that functions as a lovely antidote to the recently ended summer blockbuster season. Read full review
60
MovielineAlison WillmoreSep 21, 2012
Trouble With The Curve is an ode to the old ways of doing things, both in terms of acting and baseball. Read full review
60
New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierSep 20, 2012
Trouble With the Curve is easily digestible in chunks – if it were a CBS show, it'd be called "Postseason With Morrie" - and it has an affectionate view of grubby motels, greasy diners and small-town scoreboards. Read full review
60
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzSep 20, 2012
There is something to be said for giving people what they want, but there are no surprises in Randy Brown's script, and Lorenz plays it safe. It's feel-good stuff; you wonder what Eastwood, a terrific director, might have done with it behind the camera. Read full review
60
Time OutKeith UhlichSep 18, 2012
Adams gets a delectable onscreen partner in Justin Timberlake as a novice scout who takes an interest in Mickey. Even the old half-naked-moonlight-swim gambit feels fresh with these two involved. Read full review
58
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallSep 19, 2012
Director Robert Lorenz makes a nondescript debut, after assisting Eastwood on several of his directing gigs. The student hasn't learned much from the teacher about economic storytelling or deflecting schmaltz. Read full review
50
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliSep 22, 2012
This is a character we have seen a million times before and Eastwood brings little that's new or original to the part. The movie as a whole can be labeled with the same criticism. Read full review
50
Washington PostAnn HornadaySep 21, 2012
Trouble With the Curve presents viewers with a frustrating change-up: What promised to be a modest, refreshingly unforced little comedy turns out to be low energy to a fault. Read full review
50
Miami HeraldConnie OgleSep 21, 2012
Unfortunately even a clogging Timberlake can't stop the movie's march to a conveniently happy ending. Nor can he block the flow of psychobabble. It's enough to make any fan beg: Play ball. Please. Read full review
50
USA TodayClaudia PuigSep 20, 2012
Its title notwithstanding, there's nothing that remotely approaches a narrative curve ball in this tired saga of an aging baseball scout. Read full review
50
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternSep 20, 2012
Trouble With the Curve finally finds its zone when Gus and Mickey find the young baseball prodigy they've been looking for. That doesn't happen until the narrative's last inning, though, too late to save the movie. I'd call it "Neanderthalball." Read full review
50
St. Louis Post-DispatchJoe WilliamsSep 20, 2012
Everything about Trouble With the Curve is as streamlined and hollow as a Wiffle Ball bat. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChroniclePeter HartlaubSep 20, 2012
Trouble With the Curve has a problem tipping its pitches. Read full review
50
Austin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenSep 19, 2012
Adams is absolutely winning in this role, which requires her to be a tough-as-nails attorney, grownup tomboy, and psychologically scarred adult. And she makes a good foil for Eastwood, though it's often uncomfortable to see the actor going through melodramatic paces. Read full review
50
ObserverRex ReedSep 18, 2012
In the often illustrious career oeuvre of Clint Eastwood, Trouble with the Curve is a minor entry, a cinematic footnote. Read full review
42
Portland OregonianMarc MohanSep 20, 2012
One of the most lifeless and predictable movies you're likely to see this year. Read full review
42
Entertainment WeeklyLisa SchwarzbaumSep 19, 2012
Even those who don't know a foul tip from a chicken wing will be able to spot the desperate plays. Read full review
38
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Rick GroenSep 20, 2012
Clint has a script. Actually, Clint has too much script, one of those schematic by-the-number jobs that telegraphs its every pitch. Read full review
25
Slant MagazineR. Kurt OsenlundSep 20, 2012
Clint Eastwood makes his infamous chair speech look like chapter one of a season of self-parody. Read full review
25
The PlaylistBenjamin WrightSep 17, 2012
Lacking narrative momentum, saddled with thin characterizations and uninspired plotting, Trouble With The Curve should've stayed on the bench. Read full review
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