A Baseball Movie

Usually,  Gerry and I do not love the same kinds of movies.  Therefore, if we go to the movies, which is rarely, we 'take turns',  an action movie for him, a chick flick for me.

But there is a new movie out right now that I thought just might work for both of us.  First and foremost,  it is a baseball movie,  but the tough old baseball guy (Clint Eastwood) also has a young beautiful daughter,  and the previews suggested a bit of romance for her in The Trouble With the Curve.

I'd have to say that it is a movie with several different layers, and several story lines to follow. The primary one is about the old baseball scout (Eastwood) and his problems with aging.  The young daughter (Amy Adams) is trying to become a partner in her law firm.  Friend of father calls daughter and convinces her to come and check on her Dad, who seems to have problems, namely that he can barely see, so it is difficult for him to really do his scouting job.  The father daughter duo spend several days together following games in North Carolina.

There's plenty of baseball stats and lingo and competition to satisfy the action-oriented husband.  There's a great deal of emotional material to satisfy the human-relation-oriented wife.

When we were commenting on the movie this morning,  husband mentioned how good it was that at the end of the movie there was redemption for the old man.  I agreed.  

Only later did I understand that we had a different perception about that redemption.  For said husband,  the old man proved his abilities at scouting, and turned out to be right.  The newer guys use computers and statistics  and databases to make the determination about who to hire.  The old guy still used his old-fashioned skills of seeing, hearing, listening, understanding.   Therein was his redemption.

The father-daughter relationship had always been rocky, as baseball scout father raised her alone, having lost his wife when she was six.  He did what he could to try to protect her (shipped her away).  She felt rejected instead.  At the end of the movie,  that impossible relationship underwent a transformation, as each one came to better understand the other.  And therein was the redemption.

So, not only do we like different kinds of movies,  but when we both see the same movie,  we have a different experience and interpretation.

Why does that not surprise me?