13 Years Later, Clint Eastwood’s Curveball to Brad Pitt’s Moneyball Deserves Another At-Bat
Clint Eastwood’s 2012 sports drama Trouble With the Curve whiffed at the box office and faded fast, but this overlooked curveball delivers far more than a baseball story—and deserves a second look.
Remember Clint Eastwood's 2012 baseball drama 'Trouble With the Curve'? Most people don't, and to be fair, it whiffed at the box office and slid off the radar fast. But tucked inside that shrug of a release is a surprisingly sturdy counter-program to 'Moneyball' — less spreadsheets, more gut. Thirteen years on, it still has a small, loyal crowd that swears by it, the same kind of folks who get excited about overlooked gems as much as the usual awards darlings.
Old-school instincts vs. stats-era swagger
'Moneyball' had the flash: Brad Pitt in movie-star command, a sharp, strategy-first story, and six Oscar nominations — including Best Picture. It connected because it's an underdog grind told through the lens of data and market inefficiencies. It's the saber side of the sport, dramatized.
'Trouble With the Curve' positions itself on the other baseline. Eastwood plays an aging scout who trusts eyes, ears, and intuition over an algorithm. The movie isn't obsessing over the mechanics of baseball; it's poking at the people who actually have to play it, and the old pros who still believe the game lives beyond a spreadsheet. As a double feature, it's a neat mirror image: 'Moneyball' champions the numbers; 'Trouble With the Curve' makes the case for feel.
The lawsuit that tried to bench it
Because Hollywood can never let a movie just be a movie, 'Trouble With the Curve' got dragged into a plagiarism battle. Producer Ryan Brooks sued, claiming the film overlapped too closely with a script he had commissioned earlier. Warner Bros. didn’t exactly take that lying down, calling the complaint baseless and pushing to get it tossed.
"reckless and false"
Brooks' side countered by pointing out there was no Writers Guild registration on record for the film's script — essentially trying to ding its paper trail. A federal judge dismissed the case. Brooks appealed in 2014, tacked on a $5 million damages ask, kept it going for a while, and then walked it back on his own in August 2016. End of saga.
How the numbers shake out
- Directors: 'Trouble With the Curve' — Robert Lorenz; 'Moneyball' — Bennett Miller
- Budgets: 'Curve' — $60 million; 'Moneyball' — $50 million
- Worldwide box office: 'Curve' — $49 million; 'Moneyball' — $110.2 million
- Rotten Tomatoes critics: 'Curve' — 51%; 'Moneyball' — 94%
- IMDb user scores: 'Curve' — 6.8; 'Moneyball' — 7.6
So, is it worth another look?
If 'Moneyball' is the stat-head rallying cry, 'Trouble With the Curve' is the stubborn reply from the bleachers. It’s not as shiny, and it definitely didn't land the same way, but that's kind of the point. If you have a soft spot for the human messiness of the game — the read of a swing, the crack in a voice, the scout who still believes he can tell — it plays.
Where to watch
'Moneyball' and 'Trouble With the Curve' are both available to buy or rent on Amazon Video, Apple TV, and Fandango At Home.