legitimately startled and intrigued by a place with escalators, elevators, highway lanes with relatively scant traffic, and pizza. But it quickly loses focus on them to become a rather by the numbers account of how this one man stared down the odds to mold them into baseball players in record time. Along the way Rinku and Danesh are paid mainly lip service as they begin to feel like props (no more so than a party scene that goes predictably awry). Because of them and the presence of an attractive tenant in his guesthouse he falls for (she’s played by Lake Bell), JB begins to reveal entirely new, more thoughtful and caring sides of his personality in ways that you can see coming in advance quite clearly.
"Million Dollar Arm aslo has a whiff of condescension in its portrayal of Indians"
Jon Hamm makes a good go of it though—even if you can’t help but wish the leading actor from one of the smartest and most acclaimed modern television shows would get stronger movie roles. He’s exceedingly fine here, navigating the warming and opening up of this cocky, aloof person with ease. You can always see the just below the surface emotions bubbling under his impossibly handsome features. Hamm’s business-world persona isn’t that far removed ultimately from the advertising man he plays on Mad Men and he shows the same kind of cunningly intelligent thinking here no matter what the situation is, like a corporate office suite James Bond.
Making the central focus this one arrogant white agent is nevertheless a tad retrograde. Million Dollar Arm also has a whiff of condescension in its portrayal of Indians. We get some back story on these two young men, transplanted from their homes. But it doesn’t go far enough and it doesn’t paper over how much some of them feel at times like walking stereotypes. As a look at innovative business strategizing in America’s pastime, it falls short of Bennett Miller’s excellent Moneyball. But that was an Aaron Sorkin screenplay. This, by contrast, is a surprisingly odd pairing of direction and writing. Gillespie made the unbearably dopey Lars and the Real Girl and the forgettable Fright Night remake. The screenwriter Thomas McCarthy is a vastly more accomplished director in his own right with titles like The Visitor and The Station Agent to his name (seek that one out, Peter Dinklage fans). His last film, as it happens, was the sports-centric high school wrestling dramedy Win Win. It felt good without feeling formulaic or simplistic. Compared to that, what he turns in here feels almost hackish although plenty well intentioned and amiable all the way. Million Dollar Arm is easy to root for. That’s not always an attribute—or enough.
N. Tensen