In a Sense Not Really About Football

Those who expected a film about football must have been a little disappointed by this one. It is really a character study and has much to say about male competitivness, ego and friendship.

There are very few movies about the Beautiful Game. This may seem somewhat surprising considering the sport's global appeal. I suspect the reason is that it is actually rather difficult to depict a football match in dramatic terms.The tempo and continuous flow of the game dosen't really lend itself to being staged for a fictional film. No doubt that is why the flimmakers wisely opted to make use of a great deal of archive footage.

That,said the performances were compelling especially those of Michael Sheen,Timothy Spall and Jim Broadbent. Nice to see Martin Compston in a small role before Line of Duty fame.