Not really about sport at all - in a good way

Rating: Null/10 (5 January 2016)

Since I have little interest in sport, I would not naturally be draw to a movie - based on actual events - about the search in India for cricket bowlers who could be trained to play in the USA as baseball pitchers, following their selection in a reality television show called the "Million Dollar Arm". But it was recommended to me by a good friend and it proved to be a sound tip. No knowledge of baseball (or cricket) is needed and indeed the film is not really about sport at all, but rather an examination of how chance and opportunity can change people's lives, whether it is poor young men in India or a middle-aged man in the States.
Unlike say a sports movie such as "Moneyball" with Brad Pitt, this is not a work fronted by any stars. Suraj Sharma and Madhur Mittal play real-life Pittsburg Pirates players Rinku Singh and Dinesh Patel, while Jon Hamm is sports agent J. B. Bernstein. In an able cast, some more familiar faces - Alan Arkin, Bill Paxton, Lake Bell - appear in support roles. In a sense, the pitch for the film must have been similar to events it narrates: something that can appeal equally to audiences in the USA and India, the two most lucrative film markets in the world. It is formulaic and unoriginal but it works because it is so charming and amusing.