Film Review: The Phantom of the Open 'vivid, often hilarious and very moving'

Mark Rylance in The Phantom of the Open. Photo / Supplied

The Phantom of the Open (136 mins) PG-13
Directed by Craig Roberts

Ever dreamed of being a different person from the one you are?

Maurice Flitcroft from Barrow-in-Furness in north-west England did, when he lost his job as a shipyard crane-driver. The Phantom of the Open is the true story of how he became the toast, not at home in England, that came later, but across the Atlantic at a Country Club in Michigan, a decade after he'd tried to qualify for the famous UK Open golf championship, scoring a record-breaking 121. For non-golfers, that's a really bad score.

"World's worst golfer" was one of the many disparaging things Maurice Flitcroft was called but he chose not to simply retire as gracefully as possible, as the pompous UK Open competition organisers asked him to do.

On being barred entry to all of England's golf clubs, he was spurred on by remarkable determination and self-belief, entering the Open again and again, thinly disguised with wigs and under a range of pseudonyms including Gene Pacheki, Gerald Hoppy and even Arnold Palmtree.

All his practising didn't really pay off, only leading to a few good golf shots in his entire life. But things changed for the better when the Country Club in Michigan sent him, his wife and sons, tickets to the 10th-anniversary celebration of the event they'd named in his honour. Off they all flew.

For two of his sons, the celebration marked the beginning of their long-pursued disco dancing career. For the third, it was a wake-up call. He was an ambitious managerial type, who'd been so embarrassed by his father's televised golf course antics he'd been on the verge of disowning him.

Directed by a talented young Welsh actor turned director Craig Roberts, the film was based on the 2010 book of the same name by Scott Murray and Simon Farnaby. Simon Farnaby wrote the screenplay, imbuing it with just the right amount of northern English humour.

Online images of Flitcroft make him look eccentric, even a bit weird, aspects that Mark Rylance (Bridge of Spies, The Trial of the Chicago 7, Don't Look Up) captures, along with Flitcroft's quixotic, hopeless dreaming and his madcap practising sessions on beaches and on golf club courses after dark. Rylance makes Flitcroft's underdog life story vivid, often hilarious and also very moving.

Sally Hawkins (The Shape of Water, Blue Jasmine, Maudie, Made in Dagenham) steals the show as Flitcroft's wife Jean, encouraging Maurice to follow his dream with an enthusiasm that suggests they both might have been slightly nuts, although at the same time, Hawkins' Jean is sensible, reliable and completely sane. Clever acting.

There's a wonderful score by Isobel Waller-Bridge and a terrific selection of 70s hits that run in parallel pace with the highs and lows of Maurice Flitcroft's quirky, memorable life.

Highly Recommended for golfers, non-golfers and dreamers.

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GIVEAWAY

The first person to bring an image or hardcopy of this review to Starlight Cinema Taupō qualifies for a free ticket to

The Phantom of the Open.