The annual Homeless World Cup has been running since 2003; this year it’s in Seoul in September. It’s never been to Rome – but after this film, which is set there, you may feel like you’ve attended the entire four-a-side tournament with occasional walking tours of the Eternal City. Yes,it’s a bit long but it is very scenic.
Starring Bill Nighy as manager of the English team, its effort to focus not just on the England team, with subplots involving the Japanese and South African squads and a star female player from the US, are the main reasons it goes into extra time, complete with the requisite post-credits roll through real participants.
That said, it’s a lot of football-celebratory, feel-good fun with a thin veneer of social realism.
It does require some suspension of disbelief at first to accept the exceptionally well-tailored Nighy as the veteran football talent scout, Mal, who now spends his retirement attempting to knock into shape teams of blokes with a variety of issues ‒ ones that at first seem more like character quirks than life-wrecking difficulties. But the characters become engaging – with stand-out performances from Micheal Ward (Top Boy) as a one-time premier league contender, and Callum Scott Howells (It’s a Sin) as the team’s gentle and most troubled soul. It’s crisply directed by Thea Sharrock (Wicked Little Letters), and Nighy, especially, helps bring personality to the predictability.
It’s a very nice film, a terrific advert for the charity and one to restore your faith in football flicks after the kick in the shins that was Next Goal Wins.
Rating out of 5: ★★★½
The Beautiful Game directed by Thea Sharrock is screening now on Netflix
