I can't remember who recommended this film and I didn't read reviews prior to purchase. It was on sale at Amazon and that should have told me something but I relied on the friend who had recommended it and thought it might be a hidden treasure, one to savour.
The topics covered in the film were vast and rumbled all the way from a weeping widower some 30 years after at a grave-site singing "you are my sunshine" to a sudden reveal of an attempted molestation of a small child who was 6 at the time. Said grown-up child (Amy Adams) has no recollection of the molestation but can recite every baseball statistic known to man like an encyclopedia. Alrightee then, a few contrivances there, Mr. Randy Brown. But then we move on to the black and white characters so beloved of Hollywoodland. The evil favoured scout's pick, the handsome peanut seller whom you know is going to feature as a winner. At some point, not too late you hope. Oops, try the last scene.
I got extraordinarily tired of all the clichés, too numerous to mention here. Dance scenes, bar scenes, swim scenes.
And the hurried ending. Unexplained plot points - returning of stomped-off lover (Justin Timberlake) without any reason, peanut boy now going to be a major baseball player after ONE tryout, clichéd cardboard lawyers and team managers and public firings of staff members. Yeah, that always happens. No one worries about unfair dismissal lawsuits in movies like this.
Clint left retirement to do this film, imagining it, I'm sure, to be Million Dollar Baby redux.
Erm, no. Sorry Clint. 4 out of 10. Amy gave it her all. Clint rolled out Gran Torino for another viewing of a crotchety curmudgeon. And Justin? He ran the emotional gamut from A-B in fine style.
The topics covered in the film were vast and rumbled all the way from a weeping widower some 30 years after at a grave-site singing "you are my sunshine" to a sudden reveal of an attempted molestation of a small child who was 6 at the time. Said grown-up child (Amy Adams) has no recollection of the molestation but can recite every baseball statistic known to man like an encyclopedia. Alrightee then, a few contrivances there, Mr. Randy Brown. But then we move on to the black and white characters so beloved of Hollywoodland. The evil favoured scout's pick, the handsome peanut seller whom you know is going to feature as a winner. At some point, not too late you hope. Oops, try the last scene.
I got extraordinarily tired of all the clichés, too numerous to mention here. Dance scenes, bar scenes, swim scenes.
And the hurried ending. Unexplained plot points - returning of stomped-off lover (Justin Timberlake) without any reason, peanut boy now going to be a major baseball player after ONE tryout, clichéd cardboard lawyers and team managers and public firings of staff members. Yeah, that always happens. No one worries about unfair dismissal lawsuits in movies like this.
Clint left retirement to do this film, imagining it, I'm sure, to be Million Dollar Baby redux.
Erm, no. Sorry Clint. 4 out of 10. Amy gave it her all. Clint rolled out Gran Torino for another viewing of a crotchety curmudgeon. And Justin? He ran the emotional gamut from A-B in fine style.