Disney’s Million Dollar Arm Throws an Imperfect Game
JB Bernstein (Jon Hamm) is a Los Angeles sports agent down to his last dime. Watching cricket with friend and business partner Aash (Aasif Mandvi) he is struck with a crazy idea. What if they could find a Major League Baseball pitching prospect in India? What if they held a contest, found the right sort of talent and brought them back to the United States to be properly trained and given a tryout in front of a collection of scouts from every professional team? Success would mean over a billion new baseball fans and untold millions for the team lucky enough to have this person on their roster, all of this sure to make the agent representing them equally rich as well.
PHOTO: Walt Disney Pictures
That’s the setup for Disney’s latest inspirational sports-themed drama Million Dollar Arm. Recalling past based-on-fact efforts like Miracle, Invincible and especially The Rookie, the movie takes a true story and weaves a fairly deft, family-friendly melodrama out of it. Director Craig Gillespie (Fright Night, Lars and the Real Girl) and writer Thomas McCarthy (Win Win, The Station Agent) center things on a flawed, selfish cad of a man who finds himself redeemed and his humanity awakened by helping two young men achieve an impossible dream. They have constructed a solid (if not particularly original) drama, everything building to a suitably rousing and heartfelt climax I didn’t find myself feeling too terribly manipulated by.
Still, pardon me a little if I do admit to feeling like I’ve seen this story more than few times in the past. As handsome as the production is, as competently as Gillespie directs and as self-assured as McCarthy’s screenplay might be, the lack of anything approaching a surprise is a minor problem. It’s like Slumdog Millionaire made friends with Bend It Like Beckham and Jerry Maguire and then the three of them decided to take part in an age-reversed remake of The Rookie, all of which is every bit as obnoxious as it sounds.
Still, Hamm is very good as the self-centered jerk who learns he does have a conscience buried deep within his sternum, and his chemistry with costar Lake Bell (playing his sarcastic, highly observant medical student tenant Brenda) is aces. Even better are the two young actors, Suraj Sharma (best known for Life of Pi) and Madhur Mittal (who was in Slumdog Millionaire), portraying the potential MLB prospects Rinku and Dinesh, both of whom become strangers in a land even stranger than any they ever could have imagined before stepping foot on California soil. The pair adds gravitas to the story, give it weight and imbue it with extra meaning, and even though what happens to them is hardly shocking their reactions to the circus following their every footstep oftentimes is.
PHOTO: Walt Disney Pictures
The rest of the cast? They do what they can but, veterans like Mandvi, Bill Paxton, Alan Arkin and Tzi Ma by and large content to go through the motions. All have their moments, Arkin in particular, but I can’t say they ever stand out in a memorable way. As entertaining as the movie can be, as strong as some of the characterizations are, the overfamiliarity of the material can’t help but keep much of the emotional mechanics at arm’s length. While I appreciate the fact that McCarthy’s script refuses to pander and keeps any more maudlin stereotypical clichés to a minimum, that doesn’t change the fact there was never a moment of doubt as to where any of this was headed. While Gillespie does give things a handsome authenticity that’s compelling his almost stubborn refusal to take a risk, to attempt to do anything different, can’t help but hurt a bit at the same time. His straightforward approach is undeniably commendable; I’m just not certain it works for every second of the film’s lengthy 124-minute running time.
Still, Million Dollar Arm isn’t a waste by any stretch of the imagination. It’s beautifully shot by Gyula Pados (Predators, The Duchess) and A.R. Rahman’s (127 Hours) strong score adds to the feature’s allure without calling undue attention to itself. For family audiences, Disney’s latest inspirational sports drama fits the bill with appropriate life-affirming aplomb, and if the pitch being thrown isn’t exactly a strike that doesn’t mean it misses the mark by a whole heck of a lot.
Film Rating: 2½ (out of 4)
