{"id":14480,"date":"2014-05-15T12:24:34","date_gmt":"2014-05-15T19:24:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qgp.ykq.mybluehost.me\/cinephiled\/?p=14480"},"modified":"2014-05-15T12:27:13","modified_gmt":"2014-05-15T19:27:13","slug":"review-million-dollar-arm-starts-slow-gradually-reveals-charms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinephiled.com\/review-million-dollar-arm-starts-slow-gradually-reveals-charms\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: \u2018Million Dollar Arm\u2019 Starts Slow But Gradually Reveals Its Charms"},"content":{"rendered":"

In terms of its focus, Million Dollar Arm<\/em> is lot more like Jerry Maguire<\/em> (1996) than it is like The Rookie<\/em> (2002), or even Slumdog Millionaire<\/em>, an Oscar-winning 2008 drama that, on the surface at least, it would seem to have a lot in common with.<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s a shame, because this flawed but crowd-pleasing sports drama wrongly puts most of its emphasis and concentration on characters and situations (the sports agency business, primarily) that would have been the subplots of a (better) documentary version of the same story. It is explainable, though \u2013 this is a major studio film, after all, and Hollywood is much more likely to produce and release a movie starring Jon Hamm (TV\u2019s Mad Men<\/em>) than it is to do so with two relatively unproven Indian actors, regardless of whether they have real chops and charisma.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s to the credit of the cast (especially the aforementioned acting duo), and to the fascinating nature of the material, that the overstuffed, overlong movie works. And even then, it\u2019s just barely. Million Dollar Arm<\/em> starts so slowly enough it may lose some audience interest. But then in the subsequent hour or so, it gradually reveals just enough charm to overcome its many deficiencies, mostly in the storytelling department.<\/p>\n

Based very loosely on events from 2008, this version of the story centers on Jamie Bernstein (Hamm), an independent sports agent who\u2019s on the verge of losing his business. In fact, his partner agent, Aash (Aasif Mandvi), is ready to leave — unless the two of them can land a high-profile client with enough to keep them afloat.<\/p>\n

Luckily, \u201cJB\u201d stumbles onto a crazy idea, during some late-night sports watching: He\u2019ll go to India, and recruit cricket players to play Major League Baseball \u2013 or at least try out for some of the MLB clubs. Once he\u2019s there, JB gets help from a motor-mouthed, diminutive volunteer, Amit (Bollywood star Pitobash), and an aging big-league scout, Ray (Alan Arkin), who would rather sleep than watch most of the cricket \u201cbowlers\u201d embarrass themselves.<\/p>\n

However, this unlikely bunch of recruited are wowed by at least a couple of the would-be pitchers. During the tryouts, track athlete Rinku (Suraj Sharma) and Dinesh (Madhur Mittal), the son of a truck driver, reveal some rough skills and abilities, even though they\u2019ve never picked up a baseball before.<\/p>\n

But even when JB is able to get them to the States, and to commit to the idea, it\u2019s still up to a local college coach, Tom House (Bill Paxton), to whip the wide-eyed country mice Rinku and Dinesh into shape. Worse, he\u2019s got less than a year to do so \u2013 spring training is looming, and that\u2019s the perfect time to get the two in front of other MLB scouts.<\/p>\n

Director Craig Gillespie and actor-turned-screenwriter Tom McCarthy both have smarter, better movies than this one to their credit (Gillespie directed Lars and the Real Girl<\/em>, as well as the underrated, 2011 Fright Night<\/em> remake, while McCarthy wrote the heralded The Station Agent<\/em>, The Visitor<\/em> and Win Win<\/em>). Yet they can\u2019t help but subscribe to the numerous clich\u00e9s of the sports drama genre, swiping moves shamelessly from Slumdog at the same time.<\/p>\n

And, while Hamm does have his appeals as a performer, his character is such a jerk (again, see Jerry Maguire<\/em>) that it\u2019s hard for us to care about his struggles. Some redemption does come in the form of JB\u2019s medical student tenant and potential love interest, played winningly by Lake Bell (In a World \u2026<\/em> ). She\u2019s a welcome breath of fresh air, in what should have been a go-nowhere role. (Given how much chemistry the two have, you can\u2019t help but wish for them to be paired again, in something that\u2019s a little more consistent.)<\/p>\n

Plus, talented comedians\/actors Arkin and Mandvi (The Daily Show<\/em>) do lighten the mood when the often-too-serious film direly needs them to do so. And all of them defer, when needed, to Sharma (Life of Pi<\/em>) and Mittal (Slumdog Millionaire<\/em>). They\u2019re really the best things the movie has going for it.<\/em><\/p>\n

Jeff Michael Vice can also be read reviewing comics and television for Big Shiny Robot! (<\/em>www.bigshinyrobot.com<\/a>), be heard reviewing films, television programs, comics, books, music and other things as part of The Geek Show Podcast (<\/em>www.thegeekshowpodcast.com<\/a>), and be seen reviewing films as part of Xfinity\u2019s Big Movie Mouth-Off (<\/em>www.facebook.com\/BigMovieMouthOff<\/em><\/a>).<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In terms of its focus, Million Dollar Arm is lot more like Jerry Maguire (1996) than it is like The Rookie (2002), or even Slumdog Millionaire, an Oscar-winning 2008 drama that, on the surface at least, it would seem to have a lot in common with. And that\u2019s a shame, because this flawed but crowd-pleasing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":14482,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[13,16,99],"tags":[1865,2,222,4,1866,1868,410,270,1867,1864],"yoast_head":"\nReview: \u2018Million Dollar Arm\u2019 Starts Slow But Gradually Reveals Its Charms - Cinephiled<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cinephiled.com\/review-million-dollar-arm-starts-slow-gradually-reveals-charms\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Review: \u2018Million Dollar Arm\u2019 Starts Slow But Gradually Reveals Its Charms - Cinephiled\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In terms of its focus, Million Dollar Arm is lot more like Jerry Maguire (1996) than it is like The Rookie (2002), or even Slumdog Millionaire, an Oscar-winning 2008 drama that, on the surface at least, it would seem to have a lot in common with. 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