This ho-hum dramatisation of sports agent JB Bernstein's search for an Indian baseball star desperately wants to be Slumdog Millionaire with balls. Yet despite the involvement of talented writer Tom McCarthy and celebrated composer AR Rahman, Craig Gillespie's by-numbers schmaltzathon never transcends its tourist's-eye views of India or patronisingly cliched views of its people. Jon Hamm is well cast as the slimy agent who has an epiphany after watching Susan Boyle performing I Dreamed a Dream in front of Simon Cowell (no, really), while Suraj Sharma and Madhur Mittal make the most of underwritten roles as pitchers Rinku Singh and Dinesh Patel. Alan Arkin steals all the laughs as a grouchy scout – with a heart of gold, naturally.
Million Dollar Arm review – not the sporting Slumdog it thinks it is
This true-life tale of the search for an Indian baseball star can't bat clear of schmaltz and cliche, writes Mark Kermode