The Beautiful Game (2024)

Mediocre Sports Drama - The Beautiful Game review by GI

This is a well meaning sports underdog story that highlights the homeless World Cup, a tournament set up in 2001 where teams of homeless people from different countries compete in a football (soccer) contest. Indeed the story of this would probably have been better told as a documentary because here we have a standard narrative of composite characters all with 'issues' and the story unfolds with various tensions in the England team designed to highlight the plight of homeless people. At the centre we have Bill Nighy who is here somewhat miscast but gets away with it due to his unique screen charisma, but as a former football manager with his own demons now managing this team he's a fish out of water although most of the amusement in the film comes from him. The main centre of the story surrounds Vinny (Micheal Ward) who is recruited by Mal (Nighy) to join the team in Rome for the finals. Vinny can't bring himself to admit he's homeless due to the breakdown of his marriage, he's also a former footballer who didn't quite make it as a professional and carries the stigma of rejection. Of course as the film progresses there's the inevitable healing and bonding and the finding of true self but it is all very standard and quite predictable. There's some deviations into the activities of some of the other teams, in particular Japan, that are never really pursued sufficiently to make them interesting. A reasonably entertaining if unsatisfying film.