Pro: The magic trick of the movie is setting the viewer up for a Clint Eastwood film, but it's not his. It's Amy Adams's. And she's as good as ever, a tough girl raised by a baseball scout, surrounded by men
all her life, and sporting the rough edges such a life would leave. She's managed to become a fast Academy favorite (three nominations since breaking out in 2005's "Junebug") and she's frankly better here than in her other big performance this year.

Con: But that other big performance (in Paul Thomas Anderson's "The Master") might nevertheless be her best shot due to the thinness of that category. Not only that, but "Trouble with the Curve" landed and
was instantly dismissed as commercial, any awards talk quickly subsiding. Clint Eastwood talking to a chair probably didn't do the film any favors, either.

- Kristopher Tapley