The Million Dollar Arm

The million dollar arm is a true story of an adventure by one JB Bernstein. It is a testimony to many things India, where if one has the patience, zest and large enough net one can catch just the kind of fish they are looking for. After all we are a billion plus, aren’t we capable of producing every type of mankind?

Craig Gillespie is the director of this movie. He is best known for his dark comedy Lars and the real girl. There was a time in my life when I was watching all Ryan Gosling movies. This was mostly because I was undecided if he was a good actor or not. One movie I decided to skip was Lars. The plot itself sounded crazy. Trivia has it that Gillespie was almost roped in to direct The Dallas Buyers’ club. Well, we can only speculate now if the McConaughey classic would have received more Oscars. What he has done with the TMDA is an enchanting story of a sports agent, who has hit rock bottom, goes to an untapped market of India in search of the next baseball sensation. All this because, after all a cricket crazy country will know how to throw a ball fast. John Hamm of the Mad Men repute plays the character of Bernstein. The charming and increasingly familiar Lake Bell plays Brenda Fenwick. Brenda is like the soothsayer of the movie. She comes in at opportune times to steer the movie in the right direction. Like Michael Caine in the Dark Knight series if you like. The two guys on whom the movie is filmed, Dinesh Patel and Rinku Singh, is played by Madhur Mittal and Suraj Sharma who stunned the whole world in The Life of Pi.

The movie is a sports drama and if you have seen any such movies you know the format. What happens in the million dollar arm is pretty similar. JB lands in India pitching nets in some cities of India looking for some young men who can really pitch fast. There are the clichéd jokes on India, the food, the pollution, the head nodding, the honking and the power cuts. John Hamm does a smooth job of a cut throat agent who is looking for his next golden goose. The most endearing character in the movie is Pitobash who plays an aspiring Baseball coach. Pitobash was seen in movies like Shangai and Shor in the city and he is an actor who is unintentionally funny and has amazing expressions. He joins JB as the translator and he lands in SFO with the two prospective pitchers. Brenda Fenwick is a doctor that is the tenant of JB who is basically all woman. She comes in and fills in for the humane aspects of the movie and finally ends up in a loving relationship with JB. The movie goes through the usual, the jubilation of selection, the pressure of performance, the rustiness, the breakdown and finally the achievement.

The Million Dollar Arm is an enjoyable watch. It doesn’t have a dull moment and Gillespie does a good job of keeping the movie running at an awesome pace, a little too fast for comfort maybe. The movie will take you through emotional upheavals and as an audience you will feel like rooting for those two Indian kids. Sports biographies are powerful movies. When we talk about the likes of Remembering the Titans, Coach Carter, Glory Road or Any given Sunday, one can see the power of the plot coming together. A moment of Goosebumps, a moment where you want to stand up and cheer the player(s) even though it is just a movie. The lead up to that moment is what is weak in TMDA. But still, the movie is an enjoyable one.

If you are taking an evening off to relax after a stressful week or if you are a movie buff and love to watch all the movies that are worth watching, this movie is for you. It doesn’t disappoint and leaves you with a warm feeling.