The Beautiful Game – Stuck Between Message And Narrative

Underdog stories are a tried and true theme told across countless films for as long as there have been films. Despite their prevalence, they still find a way to connect with audiences by giving them something to invest in on an emotional level as they root for them when trying to overcome some set of arbitrary hurdles or adversity. These films live or die on the power of that connection, though some are more willing to go on that same journey time and time again than others. Sports films are a perfect outlet for these types of stories as underdogs are their foundation. When it comes to The Beautiful Game, it is simply more of the same. It may not reinvent the wheel in terms of the genre but it has its heart in the right place, shining a light on the worldwide homelessness crisis. In essence, it hits all the boxes though its flaws become more apparent whenever digging deeper. Its running time is a problem as it definitely did not have to be as long as it was, clocking in at just over 2-hours. Stuck between two conflicting underdog stories and the subplots that came with each, it has its endearing moments, however, it fails to do either justice. With so much on its plate, those issues inevitably contributed to its overlong running time. What the film would have benefited from is more focus.

The Beautiful Game of course refers to soccer (or football) which plays a major part in the story. Mal (Nighy) is a legendary soccer coach and scout who now manages the English Homeless World Cup team, an annual global soccer tournament (and a real thing). Appearing year after year, his hope was for he and his team to be crowned champions. Putting his latest team of homeless misfits together for the latest Homeless World Cup in Rome, Mal found a last minute addition in a young striker named Vinny (Ward) who looked to give them their best chance to win. Living out of his car and struggling to make ends meet for himself and his daughter, he just needed to find some purpose after his dream of becoming a professional soccer player didn’t go according to plan. That being said, he was not the only one dealing with issues or circumstances that got them to where they were, be it addiction or more complicated cultural issues. However, the team dynamic needed some work if they were ever going to truly become a team. They just needed a leader and perhaps Vinnie was what they needed but in order to do so, he would need to come to terms with his homelessness.

Presenting itself as a dual-ended underdog story with the Vinnie on one side and the English Homeless World Cup team on the other, with Mal being what connects them together, it tries to be too much for too many characters. Plenty compelling all around, the film lacks the depth to do them all justice. As far as the story was concerned, all roads led to the Rome Homeless World Cup. Spending most of its time there, it saw the story go in several different directions with subplots that needlessly took away from the core of the film and added bloat. Though the core of the film may be predictable, the emotional impact wasn’t there, simply bringing a group of thin characters together as these films often do, while giving audiences little reason to care about them or their collective journey. Had it had more focus when trying to figure out how to tell the story, it would have fared much better than it did, consolidating its main storyline and picking an anchor. Going for quantity over quality, it merely offers too much to hold onto without doing any one thing as well as they could have. Ultimately, those who gravitate towards these types of films will still do so with this one but in the end, the film will be remembered for what it represents rather than for what it was.

While it may lack in depth and focus, The Beautiful Game is definitely not lacking in charm. The writing is fine but the best part of the film was easily its performances, specifically Nighy and Ward who brought energy to who could come off as dull archetypes on paper. Compelling to watch, Mal and Vinnie could have been so much more as their respective redemption story angles fell victim to the film’s messy narrative used to loosely connect a series of sports underdog story topes. There was a way that it could push its message and still have a satisfying narrative, however, it just didn’t happen here as it couldn’t find a balance between both. The supporting cast were fun to watch and held their own, despite spending most of the time on the periphery as a result of everything else going on.

At the end of the day, The Beautiful Game is a solid sports underdog story that struggled to find the right balance between its narrative and message.

still courtesy of Netflix

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Keith Noakes

The EIC of the coincidentally-named keithlovesmovies.com. A Canadian who prefers to get out of the cold and into the warmth of a movie theatre.