Scott Forbes (00:07)
Hi guys and welcome to the latest episode of the Flickering Dreams podcast. Today we've got myself, Scott Forbes and the Reverend Andy Godfrey. And we're going to talk to you today about the latest Netflix feature, The Beautiful Game. Here's a clip.
So Andy, I know you're a big football fan like I am. What did you think of this one?
Rev. Andy Godfrey (00:50)
Yep. I was really looking forward to this one. I have to say, I enjoyed it, but I've got some caveats. So it's about the homeless World Cup, which is a real event that happens once every four years. Teams of homeless people from all over the world come to wherever it happens to be stages. In this instance, it's in Rome to play four-a-side football and see who can be the champions of the world. This follows the English team managed by Bill Nighy. We meet a guy called Vinny who he spots playing
Football in the park and decides he'd like to have him in his team Vinnie. It turns out as an ex-pro who used to play for West Ham And we get to the World Cup and there's the inevitable ups and downs and highs and lows England wins some games England lose some games Not going to tell you how it how that pans out in terms of the final position that England finishes in the tournament Because that would be a spoiler But my caveat is I got two caveats really one. I think it's too long
for a film about football, The Beautiful Game, four-a-side football, it's two hours, five minutes. And I did find that there were times when it dragged just a little bit. And I was sort of yelling at the screen, get on with it, let's move on to the next match, let's move on to the next scene. So I felt that they, well, we're trying to make time for character development. I felt that was a little bit elongated and a little bit unnecessary at times. And secondly, I love Bill Nighy. I mean, I've met Bill Nighy. I think Bill Nighy is one of our greatest actors.
I just think he's miscasting this. I don't really see him as a football manager. He never really convinced me that he had the passion, that he had the drive, that he had the technical knowledge to manage a football team, albeit a four-on-side team in the Homeless World Cup. So I think if it had been somebody else who had a bit more drive, built no place as usual, took a deadpan character, that there's one moment where he does exude and he gets sent off and that's that, you know.
But I felt he was slightly miscast in this. He never really struck me as being the football manager type, you know. Other than that, and I did, as I said, I did think it was a bit too long, the two hours, five minutes. There were times when it tried my patience a little bit. I wanted to move on to the next match, rather than just see five minutes of a guy sitting in a bench in a park, doing some internal agonizing about his situation.
So those are my two caveats. On the whole though, I thought it was pretty good and worth seeing. You get this stuff at the end about the real homeless World Cup and you get real shots of actual games. That's quite good. So yeah, for anybody who likes football, I think they'll enjoy it. But I just thought it was too long and I thought Bill Nighy was a bit miscast. But those are my two caveats.
Scott Forbes (03:39)
Fair enough. I think I might have liked this one a little bit more than you did. I thought that, well, I actually do agree with you about Bill Nye, but I still think he gave a good performance in the role of what he did. Yeah. And yet, so I think performances across the board were actually pretty good. Michael Ward as our protagonist, Vinnie.
Rev. Andy Godfrey (03:53)
Oh yeah, he's always going to give a good performance, he's a good actor.
Scott Forbes (04:06)
unlikable character to be honest for the most part of this movie. And there's part of me that did put me off a little bit and I think it might put some other people off, especially early on when he's the guy we're supposed to be rooting for. But it wasn't so much about the protagonists in this film that really got me. Some of the supporting cast and characters were the ones that really drew me in, particularly some of the other teams. So we've got some drama going on with the South African team.
Rev. Andy Godfrey (04:09)
Yeah.
Scott Forbes (04:35)
who are trying to get there. And there's some issues about refugees and some questionable air support security that we see at play. And that side of things was great. And Susan Wacoma playing this nun who's their manager, she was really funny.
Rev. Andy Godfrey (04:36)
Yes.
Yeah.
She's the manager. Yeah, you've got a nun managing the South African team. I did think she was probably the best thing about the film, actually. Yes.
Scott Forbes (04:54)
Exactly.
She was very good. I really enjoyed her. And then the Japanese team, oh, they got to me. So we've basically, we've got this really enthusiastic young girl who's their manager. And they're basically just a bunch of old men that come there, they look all sad. They're very, very bad at football. And they just want to sort of be tourists and just have fun looking around Rome while they take the chance. And we get to the point where all we're wanting them to do is score a goal.
Rev. Andy Godfrey (05:04)
Ha ha ha!
Scott Forbes (05:26)
just do something, just to send them home with a little smile. And as the film goes on, it does give a moment or two that did shed a little tear, I'll be honest. It got to me and I didn't expect that. And I was like, aw, Japan, you old men, good for you. So yeah, it had that stuff going on, but it goes to the point that probably what you're seeing about it being too long, there's a lot of subplots going on here.
Rev. Andy Godfrey (05:31)
Yeah.
Okay.
Ha ha ha.
Yeah.
Scott Forbes (05:56)
You've got stuff, South Africa, Japan. You've got a couple, two different sort of romance stories that are questionable. Yeah, you've got the boy and the American girl, and then you've got Bill Nye as well and the sort of organizer. And I think you probably could have cut both of them and it would have made the film a bit better.
Rev. Andy Godfrey (06:01)
Yeah, with the girl in the American team. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah, a bit sharper, I think. Yeah.
Scott Forbes (06:17)
Yeah, they didn't really add enough, especially the Bill Nye one that really seemed out of place because then there's like a sub subplot about his wife and it's just like yeah you're layering a bit too much in this. I would say though the football scenes were pretty good. Sport, especially football aren't, they don't always give the great scenes in terms of the actual playing of the sport itself but this one, although it's four aside, it's quite fun.
Rev. Andy Godfrey (06:21)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Too much. Yeah.
Yeah.
Scott Forbes (06:47)
On the whole, yeah, I thought this was an enjoyable film. In fact, it's on Netflix as well. It's a very easy one that you can tune in, tune out if you want to and come back to it later. So yeah, I enjoyed this one a lot. What kind of score would you give this one, Andy?
Rev. Andy Godfrey (07:00)
Good. I give it seven. So it was still here. Yeah, yeah.
Scott Forbes (07:04)
I gave this... still a hit for you, yeah. Well I'll keep it a hit because I gave this one an 8. So that is a flickering dreams score of 7.5 which does make The Beautiful Game a hit. Thank you for joining us today guys. If you enjoyed listening to us please do like, subscribe, share, do everything that you normally do to spread the word to people about us. We need those coins.
Rev. Andy Godfrey (07:10)
Oh, there you go.
That's okay.
Scott Forbes (07:33)
Come on, we need those views and listens Please, tell everyone.