For me, there are two types of films that I will give a 2.5 to. First is the movie that is completely average in all aspects. One that doesn’t take risks, is reasonably well-acted, and not really stylized in any meaningful way. They are often movies you will come out of the cinema and say, “Yeah, that was good,” but then when asked about the film two months later, you can’t remember a single element of the plot. The second type (I understand is stupid) is a film that truly could have been a 3.5 or a 4, but it drops the ball in such a way that not only can I not give it a 3, I now feel like I have to deduct marks out of frustration. This film is the latter of those two.
There are certain shots, for example, when Keane sits in a straw throne in a small area beside the rocky football pitch, or scenes of rampaging, ape-like humans in a car park finally having the footballs delivered that I really enjoyed. But so much of the film then doesn’t continue to carry that more theatrical delivery, and I think it feels slightly jarring. I’m not saying I expected the Irish team to break out into a Bob Fosse musical number in the hotel canteen, but for my own personal preference, I would have liked to see them swing at something more expressive. I understand why they didn’t… the target demo is middle-aged Irish football fans, but this is my review, goddammit, and I will say what I want to say!
The costumes, the archival footage, the stylized recreations of certain moments in history were brilliant and are another example of where I would have liked the film to lean in more. I think there were times where certain aspects of the environment made it hard to be immersed in the early 2000s. At times it felt like a modern setting but everyone just liked retro football tracksuits. My gripe, in general, is that throughout there are elements I REALLY enjoyed that could have had this film sitting closer to a 4, but I just don’t think the film wanted to fully commit.
To be clear, I really enjoyed the film and, in particular, I really enjoyed Eanna Hardwicke’s performance. I think Roy is a character that could have translated poorly to the big screen, but Eanna did a brilliant job of not letting Roy’s larger outbursts define the performance. In all moments, even down to when Roy is at home with Theresa or calling her on the phone, he brought a humanity to Roy that I really appreciated. I thought Steve Coogan did well with Mick, but I felt the film didn’t give him the opportunity to fully dive deeper into Mick’s side of the story. Mick is, to a certain extent, stuck between the incompetence of the FAI and the ego and high standards of Roy, but throughout the film, I really struggled personally to sympathise with Mick. I can imagine it was an incredibly isolating time for Mick and I cant imagine how hard it must have been to send the biggest icon in Irish sports maybe ever home packing. But to be honest I think the ball was dropped with Micks side. It is a story where both sides are in the wrong, but I think the film failed to help the viewer fully see the effects it all had on Mick.
Overall, I think this is a perfectly good movie that could have been genuinely one of the better Irish movies about one of the biggest moments in Irish sports. I feel I may have been overly harsh in this assessment, and maybe my expectations were too high going in… but I really think this could have been a terrific film.
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