The Phantom of the Open

Much more heartfelt than expected - pleasingly so! <em>'The Phantom of the Open'</em> is a very sweet film, with Mark Rylance being the absolutely perfect lead for it - great performance from him! I also enjoyed the humour, with many lines amusing me - including one that was lost in translation... It's a great (based on a true) story, one I had somehow never heard of even as a sports (golf much less so, admittedly) fan; I did slightly recognise the name Maurice Flitcroft though. Even if you don't follow golf, it definitely works as a standalone thing and it doesn't heavily focus on the sport anyway; much more to it. Pretty neat to see Craig Roberts direct (his third, but first I've seen) this - I remember watching him act in TV's <em>'The Story of Tracy Beaker'</em> when I was a kid. Well in, Rio Wellard!

Based on the true story of Maurice Flitcroft who was almost as bad a golfer as me, Mark Rylance is on super form. He works at the Barrow-in-Firness shipyard just as it's about to be wound down. Looking for something new to do, he alights on golf - a game he is singularly useless at. Having managed to enter the Open Championship and shoot a round of 121, just about everyone at the R&A wants to be shot of him - and so begins quite an engaging depiction of just how he tried to thwart them and play again. To be fair to Flitcroft, his golf did improve as his mantra of practice, practice, practice began to pay off. Sally Hawkins appears only sparingly, but is quite a good foil as his wife Jean and Rhys Ifans is also quite entertaining as the St. Andrew's man determined that our "phantom" should never pick up a club again. The narrative is amusing, but it also swipes at the cliquey, snobby, culture that prevailed at golf clubs unwilling to welcome a working class man. Clearly, Rylance was up for the part. He is enjoying himself and that is contagious. Maybe you wouldn't want to get into a golf buggy with him, or his slightly dodgy pal Cliff (Mark Lewis Jones) but a bit like "The Duke" (2020) it's a charming and characterful British film that does raise a smile.

PHANTOM OF THE OPEN is a hilarious true story of the world's worst golfer, Maurice Flitcroft (played by Mark Rylance). In 1976, Maurice tried to qualify for the British Open and shot the worst round in history. Despite his lack of skill, Maurice became a folk hero and inspired other dreamers to never give up. Craig Roberts directs the film with a light touch, making the most of the absurd situations Maurice finds himself in. Rylance is terrific in the lead role, infusing the character with both humour and pathos. The supporting cast is also excellent. The fact that the story of PHANTOM OF THE OPEN is true is astounding and, as the plot unfolds, it becomes increasingly jaw-dropping. This is a feel-good film with a message that will resonate with anyone who has ever had a dream. It's also extremely funny and very entertaining. Even if you're not a fan of golf, PHANTOM OF THE OPEN is sure to make you laugh. It's the perfect feel-good movie that will leave you feeling inspired. Highly recommended.

It is a cliché that there are some performers people would watch reading from a phone book. An exaggeration, perhaps, but the leads in this movie, Mark Rylance and Sally Hawkins, approach that status for me. I also appreciated and recognized Mark Lewis Jones, though I knew not from where as I watched. As it happens, he had starred masterfully in the modern classic limited dramatic series Chernobyl. But this film is not nearly as serious as that excellent work, focusing as it does on a minor tragedy, which is to say the personal travails of a novice golfer. He takes up the sport innocently believing he can practice his way to being able to play with the big boys, but only manages to entertain rather than excel. The movie is not a tragedy or even a serious drama really, but rather a feel good biopic of an Everyman who achieved fame of a sort by sticking with an impossible dream. It is not a subtle or particularly deep movie, so I don’t believe I will watch it more than once as I have other films these actors have starred in, but it was a fun watch.