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The Beautiful Game

The Beautiful Game

2024

Thea Sharrock

Bill Nighy, Micheal Ward, Valeria Golino, Cristina Rodlo ...

4.7

350

Drama An English football team travels from London to Rome to take part in the Homeless World Cup competition. At the last minute, the coach decides to include the talented striker Vinny in the team. However, the young man with a promising past is now going through a rough patch, and to be a help to the team he will have to face his ghosts from the past.

	Media	Author	Review
		Fionnuala Halligan Screendaily	"A charming, formulaic-but-with-some-edge story of second chances "
		Guy Lodge Variety	"No amount of rote writing in Frank Cottrell-Boyce’s patchy script can dim the film’s lump-in-the-throat effectiveness."
		Lori Meek Ready Steady Cut	"'The Beautiful Game' may be a predictable offering of an over-simplified version of reality, but it's still a worthwhile feel-good drama with a touching story and endearing characters (...) Rating: ★★½ (out of 5)"
		Mark Donaldson Screen Rant	"Entertaining sports drama that deftly balances worthy messaging with humor and compelling characters (...) Rating: ★★★ (out of 5)"
		Glenn Kenny The New York Times	"Peppered with funny and inspiring moments... 'The Beautiful Game' is a model of a modern 'nice' movie"
		Peter Bradshaw The Guardian	"Nighy doesn't really convince here (...) The tropes are a bit familiar (...) Rating: ★★ (out of 5)"
		Pete Hammond Deadline	"This is another admirable addition to a subgenre that relies heavily on the appeal of its cast. 'The Beautiful Game' scores big time in that regard"
		Fionnuala Halligan Screendaily	"It’s a film with considerable heart and, in Nighy and Ward, the Tinker Bell sparkle of the true film-star. Also, with its subject, a plea for compassion that can never go amiss"
		Kevin Maher The Times	"When the film is off the pitch it frequently sings, and the relationship between Mal and Vinny is especially tender. But the football sequences that dominate the final act are lethally dull (...) Rating: ★★★ (out of 5)"
		Tim Robey Telegraph	"Even if many a plot point feels mechanical, Boyce and Sharrock get away with it for one overriding reason: the star wattage coming off Ward is once-per-generation stuff (...) Rating: ★★★ (out of 5)"
		John Serba Decider	"[It] banks on its undeniable warmth, Ward’s strong central performance and the handful of wrinkles in the story that prevent it from becoming fully formulaic"
		Leslie Felperin The Hollywood Reporter	"The film rolls along smoothly like many a British sitcom, finding its humor largely in mild embarrassment, ironic understatement and well-rehearsed comic timing"
		Aparita Bhandari The Globe and Mail	"You can see the ending from a mile away. But that does not stop you from cheering the various teams of unhoused players"
		Ian Sandwell Digital Spy	"It'll be a hard soul to not be uplifted by the movie's triumph-over-adversity story arc, with engaging performances sweeping you along with the drama of the matches (...) Rating: ★★★ (out of 5)"
		Tania Hussain Collider	"An important one about an extremely serious social problem tackled most sensitively"

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