I am a huge sports fan and I religiously follow all the Boston teams, Celtics, Bruins, Red Sox, and Patriots. About twenty years or so ago a friend of mine introduced me to the beautiful game otherwise known as futbal or in America soccer. Ever since I’ve been a massive supporter of Liverpool in the English Premier League. I’ll be honest though, in all my years of watching soccer I had never heard of The Homeless World Cup until I saw this film, The Beautiful Game. 

Mal (Bill Nighy) is an ex-futbol manager now relegated to coaching a group of Homeless men.  He takes his team of seven players, four who play the field and one goalie, every year to what is called The Homeless World Cup. You’re only allowed to play on a squad if you’re Homeless. He’s been scouting one man who is a bit down on his luck, Vinny Walker (Micheal Ward, Empire of Light) who he hopes will join his team and give them a better chance at winning the World Cup. 

The team is filled with a bunch of guys who are in a similar situation as Ward’s character. Kevin (Tom Vaughan Lawlor) the goalie, Nathan (Callum Scott Howells) Cal (Kit Young) striker, Aldor (Robin Nazari) Jason (Sheyi Cole) all have difficult circumstances that let them to this situation. Being a part of this team can give them something to look forward to each day. The team aspect is an element they don’t have in their everyday lives. This is important to them.

Ward’s character had a bit of a life before being recruited to play on this team and representing his country in these games. He was a prominent young player for Aston Villa at one time in his life. He had a job, wife, and daughter he loved before it all came crashing down on him. This like for the other guys is a second chance. The problem is he feels like he’s better than everybody else and doesn’t think he should be in these circumstances.  Even though his ability as a footballer says otherwise.

Bill Nighy has had a long and distinguished career. He has been in massive franchises like The Pirates of The Caribbean, Harry Potter, and the Underworld series of films. He has done a lot of British television and he’s done his share of indie films like Love Actually,  About Time, and his Academy Award Nominated turn in Living. He as they say has done it all in his career. This is the first time I’ve seen him in a sports movie though. He has a specific gate about him and he plays the coach of this team similarly to a lot of other characters in his career. Pretty stoic and emotionless. He does a lot of heavy lifting as the coach of this team. They have quite a bit of problems to sort out. The script even gives him a love interest his character has to maneuver around. He’s pretty good at all the things his character is called on to do.

The soccer in the film is interesting and the film is named after the game but it’s a means to an end for the director Thea Sharrock, and the writer Frank Cottrell Boyce. It is an inciting incident if you will to learn about these characters’ lives. Subplots involving romantic entanglement,  missing a flight and praying to God, respect for one’s self and country drug addiction, and others are all mixed in this two-hour film. The story is based on real events but the characters are fictional. I found some of the subplots very fascinating and relatable.  Soccer was just a means to an end for the filmmakers.

A key moment in the film was near the end when there were a couple of songs that played that brought this story home for me. “A Bridge Over Troubled Water” and “Homeless” by Simon & Garfunkel both played over the last match in the tournament and near the end credits. This was to signify a redemption story for Ward’s character. They meant a hell of a lot more than that though. They represented everybody in the movie that was going through a tough time. My hand is raised on that as well. This was a perfect way to give closure to the film and story.

The Beautiful Game is like a metaphor for real life. It refers to soccer but in actuality, it’s about life. The lives of these characters from different countries all come together in Rome, Italy to play soccer at this tournament but what they get instead is life lessons they will never forget. The cast is pretty good with Nighty and Ward as the standouts. The soccer is meh but the story and subplots are the real winner here. I genuinely cared about most of these people and their journey from the beginning to the end of the film. This was a good sports movie but a better film about real people.

The Beautiful Game is streaming on Netflix March 22nd

3 ½ stars

Dan Skip Allen