Million Dollar Arm is undoubtedly one of the best baseball films in recent history.

In 2007, J.B. Bernstein (Jon Hamm) had his own sports agency which helped to sign professional athletes to major league sports teams. After a few finished contracts with big names, Bernstein’s company was slowly losing business and going bankrupt. When flipping through the channels one day between watching Susan Boyle on Britain’s Got Talent and a professional game of cricket, Bernstein conceives the seemingly ridiculous business idea: recruit native Indians, who are huge cricket fans, to become Major League Baseball pitchers.

Once he received money from an investor, and hired a retired (and snarky) baseball scout (Alan Arkin) to help him search for qualified candidates, Bernstein travels throughout India to look for them. After finding two young men – Rinku Singh (Suraj Sharma) and Dinesh Patel (Madhur Mittal) – in their early 20s qualified to train, he brings them back to Los Angeles to train with legendary USC baseball coach Tom House (Bill Paxton), in hopes of Rinku and Dinseh being signed with a MLB team.

There’s something about Million Dollar Arm that is, frankly, magical. Perhaps it’s the idea of pursuing the American Dream, or it could be the fact it’s based on a true story. While many of the Disney princess films are “magical,” Disney managed to add the same glimpse and feeling of magic into this film as well. Screenwriter Thomas McCarthy (Up) fills the script with the perfect mixture of anticipation, romance, comedy, and drama that will surely touch your hearts and wet your eyes.

Hamm, known for Mad Men, The Town, and Kristen Wiig’s disgusting friend-with-benefits in Bridesmaids, gives a riveting performance of JB Bernstein. Million Dollar Arm shows that Bernstein is a complex person, between attempting to keep his company from going bankrupt, helping to assimilate two young Indian men to the American culture, and pursuing a romantic interest Hamm was successful in showing Bernstein’s emotionally complex depth as a human and his ability to change over time. Since Hamm has mainly been cast in supporting roles in films, Million Dollar Arm may be the exact boost Hamm needs in his career, to further launch him into more lead actor roles.

The supporting cast which includes Madhur Mittal (Slumdog Millionaire), Suraj Sharma (Life of Pi), Lake Bell (Friends with Benefits), Aasif Mandviwala (The Daily Show), Alan Arkin (Little Miss Sunshine), and Bill Paxton (Apollo 13) is beyond exceptional. Little-known director Craig Gillespie pulled together a group of actors who are not all exceedingly well known, but the chemistry amongst all of them on screen will undoubtedly warm your heart.

The soundtrack is written by A. R. Rahman, who also composed the Academy Award winning score for Slumdog Millionaire in 2008. Unsurprisingly, Rahman brought his wonderful and unique music, full of Eastern flair mixed with electronics and an orchestra to Million Dollar Arm. The score is nothing short of awesome, and is the perfect fit with a stellar cast and script.

Million Dollar Arm will make you laugh, it will make you cry, it will assuredly motivate you to follow your own dreams, and is a must-see for baseball fans. For those non-baseball fans out there, there’s still plenty in the film that will bring you to tears.

Grade: A

Rated: PG (for mild language and some suggestive content)

Million Dollar Arm opens in theaters on May 16.