Struggles, but enjoyable

Here’s how you can tell “The Scout” is an Albert Brooks movie. Much like “Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World” and “The Muse”, it begins with a great idea, one mined for some terrific comedic gold early, but then it starts to go wayward before being totally hokey. What saves it at all then is that thankfully Brooks is also in it, as is Brendan Fraser, then a budding young comedic talent with soulful eyes.


Brooks plays Al Percolo, a scout with the New York Yankees who has been banished to Mexico by the team GM (Lane Smith) after his most recent recruit flops out in the most epic way possible. Mexico is basically seen as the outer reaches of civilization here, one where the baseball is lackluster, animals and other such things litter the field, and people eat braised cow hooves in the stands.

As luck would have it it’s also where Al experiences Steve Nebraska (Fraser) for the first time. He’s a phenom with a superhuman arm who can hit a ball for miles. Any kid this good would have a future all locked up for himself but somehow he’s landed in the middle of nowhere, perfect for Al to recruit and stake his entire reputation on him.

But hold off lifting the World Series trophy just yet. Steve of course comes with his own nerves and problems. He’s a cheerful, simple-minded kid who enjoys singing out loud and show tunes but he also has serious abandonment issues and his dealings with the press are reminiscent of King Kong’s. Taking him to a psychiatrist (Dianne Wiest), she diagnoses him as severely troubled and recommends daily therapy.

It’s clear the kid needs a father and so Al invites the kid to stay in his apartment with him til he finds his footing. At a certain point we’re also told Steve may hate his real father so much that he may attack Al- something that leads to a sorta funny scene making dinner but nothing more.


Al orchestrating too much of the kid’s life also becomes an issue but this, too, is handled mostly for sitcom melodrama and you really wish Brooks, his other writers, and director Michael Ritchie had found another way to end all this rather than a leaden, terribly unfunny “man on the ledge” ending.


What works then are the smaller moments. While the in-game baseball stuff is pure fantasy (so many strike-outs, so many powerful pitches), here is a movie that at least knows how to send-up baseball with funny nods to Mickey Mantle, Billy Martin, and baseball owners (Steinbrenner makes a cameo), as well as the characters and game itself. That Brooks is such a sharp comedic wit and Fraser, so good at playing innocence and arrested development, is what keeps it likably enjoyable.


The film moves well for the most part. It’s lighthearted and never dull but it does fall into a sitcom trap of trying to deal with mental health, but make it funny at the same time. Those two things struggle together and make for an uneven movie. Still, if your a Brooks and Fraser fan, the film offers some bright spots if not exactly home runs.