Aubrey MaloneThe trouble about making a film based on a true story like this is that one has to become a kind of slave to facts. In this case the facts are that two young boys, Rinku and Kinesh, were plucked from obscurity in India in 2008 to join a major league baseball team in America. Fine, but baseball (at least as it's presented here) doesn't make for interesting viewing.
Tommy Docherty once said cricket was the only sport he knew of where people actually put on weight while they were playing it. Baseball can be equally boring in cinematic terms. A man throws a ball and then runs. Is this meant to be exciting? (Here we don't even get the run).
As it begins we see cash-strapped sports agent JB (Jon Hamm) losing a top player to a rival agency and then getting the brainwave of going to India to recruit unknowns in a national competition.
It's a great idea and it's affectionately played out but the film (like the game it showcases) lacks pace. I also felt it patronised Indians in the same way Lost in Translation patronised the Japanese. It makes them too obsequious and wide-eyed.
The audience is also patronised by the film's obvious telegraphing of everything. Rinku and Kinesh are lonely. JB needs to realise that to get the best out of them. It's a message a ten year old would have thought up.
And why does Alan Arkin have to always turn up in these 'feelgood' films as the avuncular eccentric? Once again he spends his time speaking too loud in that Christopher Walken way.
There's a romantic subplot featuring JB's next-door neighbour (and tenant) Brenda (Lake Bell). We know he's going to become involved with her the moment he tells his colleague 'She's not my type.' Brenda is a student doctor but even this I found didn't ring true. (Student yes – she's kooky and offbeat – but not doctor).
As the film goes on JB starts to use his heart more than his head. It's enjoyable in a Disney way but too much of the treatment is didactic.
If they changed the sport from baseball to, say, soccer, it would have had many more dramatic possibilities. Of course that wouldn't have been 'factual' as they don't play soccer in India, but I think Million Dollar Leg would have worked much better than Million Dollar Arm.
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