Million Dollar Arm – ****

Beyond its dominance in animation, Disney has also had quite the pedigree with regards to its live-action, sports films as well, from The Mighty Ducks, to Remember The Titans. Its latest entry, Million Dollar Arm, seeks to uphold, if not surpass, such a storied catalog of both fictional and actual sports tales. In Million Dollar Arm, Jon Hamm (of Mad Men fame) plays JB, a sports agent on the brink of losing his independent firm’s entire business with his partner, Aash (Aasif Mandvi).

His one and only potential client, an NFL player, is hustling between JB’s firm and one of the mega-agencies, seeing where he can get the largest payout.  Hmm, doesn’t this remind you of a certain other film about a sports agent, you know, Jerry something or other? He is desperate to maintain the extremely comfortable lifestyle he’s grown accustomed to, with his LA mansion, sexy blue Porsche, and even sexier model(s) he’s dating. When his NFL star reneges on signing, JB collapses into full panic mode.

While discussing their options over beers one rough night with Aash, he stumbles upon a stroke of genius, at least that’s what he hopes at first. Aash is watching his native homeland’s beloved game of cricket, courtesy of the colonizing British Empire way back when. Now, as a red-blooded American, JB has zero interest in cricket whatsoever, while Aash proclaims, “it is the greatest sport in the world!”.

Sorry, Aash, but hundreds of millions of soccer (or football to the rest of the world) fans would have to disagree with you there. He does, however, notice that there are some fast pitchers (bowlers) in the few minutes of the game he’s observed, even though they throw in a completely different style from American baseball pitchers.

He believes he can discover a young cricket player and turn him into a serious Major League Baseball prospect. But before he can embark upon a scouting mission to India, he must secure capital from a deep-pocketed investor, Chang (Tzi Ma). Due the new funding source, JB is able to turn his search into a full-out talent search he dubs “The Million Dollar Arm”. The only stipulation is that he has one year total to find and train a player to get an official MLB tryout.

When he lands in India, he discovers it’s going to be much more difficult to execute than he had imagined. The snail’s pace of ‘business’, and the constant need to ‘grease the wheels’ to keep things running as smoothly as he wishes are just a few of the roadblocks he has to deal with. Aash & the firm’s adorable administrative assistant, Theresa (Allyn Rachel) stay back at home to hold down the fort. So, JB is left alone with his Indian team, Vivek (Darshan Jariwala) and Amit (Pitobash) and American talent scout, Ray (Alan Arkin) to find the next great MLB pitcher. Ray and Amit provide plenty of laughs during their whirlwind tour of India.

Also back at home is the gorgeous medical student who rents out his guest house, Brenda (portrayed by the wonderful Lake Bell). For a future doctor, however, she does not have very good luck with washing machines. They keep in contact during his lengthy trip over Skype calls. It’s obvious he has feelings for her, even if he tells Ash, “she’s not my type,” to which Ash astutely responds, “why not? because she’s not a model?”. JB is certainly not winning any personality points so far for rejecting someone as cute as Brenda. But through their odd-hour, long-distance Skype sessions, JB realizes his true feelings for her after all.

In the course of the competition, he has the fortune of finding two pitchers who throw fast enough for the big leagues. One, Dinesh (Madhur Mittal) throws extremely fast but wild and inconsistent. The other, Rinku (Suraj Sharma) has a very unorthodox pitching style but is pinpoint precise, hitting the strike zone time after time. They both make it to the finals, and eventually earn a trip to the United States to train at USC under the legendary Coach Tom House (Bill Paxton), in preparation for their Major League tryout.

Once back in his element at home, though, JB loses sight of his plans for the boys, causing their training suffer. When everything starts going sideways, JB must reevaluate his priorities in order to preserve what he truly wants from his life. Million Dollar Arm is a truly inspiring film, in the great spirit of all of those past Disney films we’ve all come to know and love. It is more than just a perfect blend of Moneyball and Slumdog Millionaire, it warms the heart and reminds us that no matter where we come from, dreams do come true, something Disney knows very well.