Million Dollar Arm

As Million Dollar Arm started to play out, I was enjoying myself.  I found Jon Hamm to be a likable Hollywood lead, and I was looking forward to seeing where his character and his story would go.  A little over an hour into the film, I found myself still waiting for the story to grip me.  By that time, the reality was starting to sink in that this was going to be a very by the numbers "true story" film that had some charm, but largely was written to be as cliched and as inoffensive as possible.

Don't get me wrong, I have no delusions that every movie needs to be a masterpiece of originality in order to work.  I have enjoyed many a movie that I have been able to predict its plot point by point.  All I ask is that the characters are at least likable, and that the writing show a bit of spark or intelligence.  Million Dollar Arm has plenty of likability, but the script and the story its trying to tell never engages.  That's because its been written completely by the book of the underdog sports movie formula.  It never once diverts from the norm, and buries its potentially gripping story underneath a lot of forced charm and cliches.  For whatever reason, the filmmakers did not trust that they had a fascinating sports story, and instead try to make it like every other movie just like it.  This is the film's fatal flaw, and what ultimately prevented me from fully enjoying it.

Jon Hamm plays J.B. Bernstein, a down on his luck sports agent who just lost his last big potential client, and now faces financial ruin unless he can come up with a brilliant idea.  While flipping channels between a cricket game and a TV talent show, J.B. has a brainstorm - He will fly to India and host a contest called "Million Dollar Arm", where they will hold open auditions for cricket players who can pitch fast enough to possibly play in Major League Baseball back in the States.  In India, he enlists the help of a grumpy old talent scout (Alan Arkin, who more or less has the lock on "grumpy old men" roles these days), and after countless tryouts, he selects two possible candidates - Dinesh Patel (Madhur Mittal) and Rinku Singh (Suraj Sharma).  He brings them back to the States, where they can be trained by the noble coach Tom House (Bill Paxton).  Tom has his doubts that he can shape these two young men into professional baseball players in less than a year, but seeing that this is a sports movie being released by the Disney Studio, the audience doesn't exactly share his concern.

I liked all of these characters, and I really wanted to know a lot more about them, but that's just where this movie goes wrong.  It never truly allows us to get to know these characters.  What do the two potential ballplayers from India think about being uprooted from their homes, leaving their families, and training for a game they know little about?  This movie doesn't much care.  Heck, here's an even better question - What do they think of America?  Aside from a couple cute and contrived scenes where they mess around with technology and discover pizza for the first time, the script largely leaves it up to our imaginations.  We don't even really get to see their progress in playing baseball, as they seem to play entirely by how the script determines they should.  If they're supposed to play bad, they can hardly seem to throw the ball.  If they're required to play good, they're suddenly throwing fast balls that would make any professional pitcher envious.  These characters are completely at the mercy of the plot, and react as they are expected to.

The character of J.B. also goes through a radical change, going from a cold cynic who only cares about business deals, to becoming a much warmer personality who tells his two prospects not to worry about making it to the Majors, and just have fun.  Jon Hamm plays the character well enough, and he's more than capable of carrying the film.  Once again, the fault lies in the script, which refuses to make him a relatable or interesting individual.  His change in attitude feels cold and calculated, as does the romantic subplot he shares with the woman who lives nearby his home (Lake Bell).  Everything he does and says is in the service of the predetermined plot.  Nobody in this movie says anything that isn't important to moving things along, and nobody is allowed to have a thought unless it is related to the story at hand.

Why do this?  The movie has a lot of potential for working as a fish out of water story, first when J.B. is visiting India, and then when he brings his two potential clients home.  This could have been interesting, or at least led to some genuinely funny or heartwarming scenes.  Instead, everything feels plotted and mechanical.  I wanted to fall under this movie's spell, I really did.  I wanted to fall in love with these characters, and have my heart leap or sink with each victory or defeat they come across.  But, the movie's reluctance to stray from its rigid formula prevented me.  The real life people that these characters are based on obviously have fascinating stories to tell about their experiences together.  Why not exploit this, instead of giving us a generic feel-good movie?

Million Dollar Arm, I must be honest, did manage to work with me up to a point.  It was only when we were  a good hour into the film, and I realized I still knew next to nothing about these people that my heart started to sink and never recover.  This is a film that easily could have been uplifting and heartwarming, if only the filmmakers telling it believed in the story, rather than in making just another assembly line product.

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