Director: Thea Sharrock
Writer: Frank Cottrell Boyce
Stars: Bill Nighy, Micheal Ward, Beckett Handley
Synopsis: Advocates to end homelessness, organize an annual tournament for Homeless men to compete in a series of football matches known as The Homeless World Cup.
What you’ll love about The Beautiful Game is how it challenges long-held perceptions and stereotypes of the “housing insecure.” I remember watching a rerun of The Andy Griffith Show in which Sheriff Taylor was apprehensive about helping a “homeless” man that Opie befriended. The man later ran away, scared, when Andy managed to get him a job. It was as if an honest day’s work was worse than riding in railroad cars and stealing pies off window sills, like a malnourished Jack Reacher.
As we know, homelessness can happen to anyone. Just look at The Pursuit of Happyness. Here, The Beautiful Game is not just a crowd-pleaser, which it indeed is. It’s a film that captures what co-founders Mel Young and Harald Schmied envisioned years ago when the event began in Sacramento in 2003. The tournament draws awareness and advocacy for the problem, creates social integration for oppressed groups, and teaches valuable lessons in inclusion and acceptance.
The movie follows a team of soccer players, or, correctly, English Football players, as they compete in the Homeless World Cup – a football tournament with purpose, whose year-round work culminates in a world-class event which has the power to transform the lives of participants and shape attitudes towards homelessness – that takes place in Rome. The players, yes, are homeless, but most are individuals in recovery or seeking asylum for a better life.
Led by their coach Mal (Bill Nighy), the longtime manager of the club, who brings on potentially their most talented player ever, Vinny (Empire of Light’s Micheal Ward), a gifted and cocky striker who is head and shoulders above the rest. Mal sees something in Vinny that he sees within himself, which is someone in need of redemption and a helping hand for a second chance at life.
The Beautiful Game was directed by Thea Sharrock (Wicked Little Letters), and the true story is an adaptation from Frank Cottrell Boyce (The Two Popes). Their film is a genuine crowd-pleaser. Yes, the film may not be breaking new ground for the genre for most people, but the general plot goes against the grain, as it is as original a premise when it comes to true stories as you can get. That elevates this Netflix streaming film above all else because it shines a light on a sociological problem distinctly and creatively.
One of the more entertaining aspects of The Beautiful Game is the character arc of Ward’s Vinny, who naturally feels he is above the team. That, bluntly in terms of talent, is true, but he fails to realize at first that his situation is like everyone else on the team. This is a classic tale, maybe even cliché, regarding incredible true stories that give the characters their own redemption, which the film essentially is about.
This type of evolving character is standard, but the chemistry between Nighy’s Mal and Vinny leads both to salvation, which gives the film additional weight regarding its incredible true story. Regarding inspirational tales, especially unique ones like this, the themes and the resulting satisfaction are enhanced because of the resilience, growth, and respect built between two likable yet contrasting characters.
Most importantly, in terms of a cinematic experience, The Beautiful Game lives up to the big sports moment it builds towards. I cannot tell you how often films fail to capture the glory of winning or the agony of defeat, meaning they miss the point entirely of what a movie experience can be.
However, when combined with a story of extraordinary social advocacy, which is rare for the genre, The Beautiful Game is a story head and shoulders above the rest, even if the road map is particularly familiar to the usual genre film destination.
