Million Dollar Arm *** (2014, John Hamm, Lake Bell, Alan Arkin) – Movie Review

John Hamm stars as down-on-his-luck American sports agent JB Bernstein, who stages an unconventional career-reviving scheme after watching images Susan Boyle singing I Had a Dream in her viral video performance and Indian cricketers in quick succession while he was idly TV channel hopping.

Talk about thinking outside the box! He goes to India to run a talent competition for gifted Indian cricket players to discover the first Major League baseball pitchers from India. JB takes the contest winners to LA where they find mastering a new sport, language, food and way of life in an alien culture quite a challenge.

This Disney inspirational baseball movie is simplistic and corny, but it’s undeniably effective and enjoyable throughout, even at its great length. The actors completely nail it. Hamm’s not a movie star yet but he makes a very genial hero. He’s excellent company, warm and winning. Suraj Sharma and Madhur Mittal add their charm as fastball slingers Rinku Singh and Dinesh Patel, while Lake Bell rings the right note as Hamm’s love interest Brenda. Old-time screen favourite Alan Arkin pushes his luck as the ancient canny coach Ray, in an outrageously hammy performance, but then he’s probably earned the right to be slack after all these years.

The film’s so well meaning that it hurts, saying all the right things about everything. But that’s good thing, isn’t it? The culture-clash comedy is well handled, and the culture-uniting sentiments carefully judged. No one gets hurt, shot, insulted or dies. The Slumdog underdogs don’t go to the dogs – on the contrary they triumph. If this is a bit of a Disney view of the world, well, why not?

It’s based on a true, and truly inspiring story. And, though it’s a bit over-calculated and formulaic, they’ve made a winning job of doing it. The views, the sounds and the music of India come as vibrantly across as the film’s warm good heart.

© Derek Winnert 2014 Movie Review

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