When Saturday Comes

I saw this film primarily because I am a supporter of Sheffield United. To fully enjoy it however, you need to suspend belief and overlook some of the inaccuracies that it contains. The depiction of Sheffield for example, appears to be more appropriate to the seventies than the nineties and some of the dialogue & accents were "out of date".

However, these were small reservations and overall I enjoyed the film - mainly from the perspective Sheffield United fan. Come on you Blades!!!

Set in the grimy North of England we see Jimmy Muir, played by Sean Bean, being discovered by talent scout Pete Postlethwaite to play football for top tier club Sheffield United to escape the drudgery of his working class roots. This is your classic rags to riches story that had some possibility set in the world of football however the script is riddled with cliches, Maria Giese's direction is totally uninspired and the film takes itself way too seriously. On top of that Sean Bean is about 15 years too old to be playing such a character, being 36 at the time, an age when most footballers are thinking about hanging up their boots.

We even get a Rocky style training montage done Yorkshire style in the cold and dank streets of Sheffield that is quite embarrassing and instead of cheering him on we're only inspired to be quietly pleased for Jimmy as he makes his triumphant return to form after messing up his initial trial for the club after going on a drinking binge.

Sean Bean is more at home in meatier roles playing darker characters in blockbusters like Goldeneye, Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones. This film needed a lighter touch from a younger actor who would have been more convincing playing Jimmy Muir, where the taste for glory would have come across as meaning so much more to a younger character.

When Saturday Comes has all the working class cliches of living up North such as rebelling against an abusive father, getting drunk down the local pub, leering at topless women in a strip club, working in a dead end factory job and having the younger brother being unable to escape his roots by working down t'pit.

Both Postlethwaite and Emily Lloyd do their best with the material they are given but it feels like it was made in the early 1970's rather than the mid-90's. No doubt die hard Sheffield United fans will get some pleasure from it but for the rest it's as flat as a warm pint of bitter.

Sean Bean stars as equally Sheffield United-mad brewery worker Jimmy Muir, a talented footballer who was let down by authority figures as a young man. After ten years working a dead-end job the frustrated Muir meets Annie Doherty, a pretty Irish love interest played by English actress Emily Lloyd, and soon after gets the second chance at his dream that such people always seem to get in these modern fairy tales. Yes, the formulaic plot is predictable and clichéd, but it is still enjoyable to watch and there are quite a few touching moments.

Funnily enough, although this is a football film I felt one of the strongest aspects of the film was the way it dealt with the personal relationships between Jimmy and his family members and friends: Pete Postlethwaite, for example, playing Jimmy's mentor Ken Jackson, puts in a strong, convincing performance, as well as John McEnery as Jimmy's abusive father Joe. A subtle side-track detailing Joe's past and its relevance to Jimmy's present is cleverly done and is to me an important part of the film's overall message.

Unusually for a sports film, the actual football is very well done. Director Maria Giese manages to do what so few directors have before or since in getting both the match itself and the atmosphere right. Every game portrayed is totally believable, from the park football at the beginning to the climactic final match at the end. Giese should really be commended here; each match is very different and she gets the overall feel of each one at least very close to spot on.

One criticism I will give the film, however, is its ending, which seems incredibly rushed and not really believable -- I know I said before that this is a fairy tale but watch the film and I'm sure you will see what I mean. I think that if you cut out ten minutes from earlier in the film and add a few more minutes of action just before the film's climax, the movie would work a lot better. It just seems very sudden to me, that's all.

Nevertheless, "When Saturday Comes" is an enjoyable watch, especially if you're a football fan. By no means brilliant, but still well worth the night in. 7/10.

WHEN SATURDAY COMES is a little, British football flick but brilliant. Quite similar to FEVER PITCH but ten times more better. It provides booze, sex and excitement on the pitch. You can't get fed up this the first time you watch it. Brilliant and FULL MONTY style, this film was so exciting and Sean Bean gives a good performance. It was so good that my popcorn finished a quarter of the way through it, that's how excited i was even though i had a mega-deluxe bag. Blood rushed was rushing all over to different parts of my body. All that i could think of was football, sex, booze, football, sex, booze. WSC. What pardon?. WSC. I love it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1. It is more exciting than watching boring, boring Arsenal, Manchester United, Chelsea and Brazil. Ah, what's wrong?....your hot dog finished?, tomato ketchup spilt down your jumper. WSC is brilliant.

The opening scenes of this movie are shot at my old school. It used to be known as Annes Road Junior School but has since moved up market and is no referred to as Annes Grove. I'ts a primary school although it's depicted in the movie as a seconday (high) school. The pub they head off towards is the Shakespere but when they get inside it is transformed into another pub all together. These inaccuracies aside, the thing that miffs me the most is that were never allowed to leave school by that particular gate, we had to walk around the school. Sad to say that at 45 years old I'm still traumatised by that small restriction.

As for the movie, it's not really fiction, I grew up with these people, although they may have exaggerated the typical crowd size for a Blades match. By the way, respect to Tony Currie.