Le Beau Jeu

I watched this with my parents who have limited enjoyment of the sport, however the emotion and character storyline transcend the sport. It was compelling viewing and had my parents cheering, up on their feet and crying at times.

As a football fan, I found Vinnys character arch very believable, knowing the amount of players and people professional sports churns out, seeing Vinny get closure from Bill Nye brought a tear to my eye.

This film has given me some faith in the recent slew of netflix movies and given me reason to continue my subscription.

I have since watching read that this is somewhat rooted in the real homeless world Cup, with several ex players and coaches being involved. Personally this film has drawn much needed attention to a well worth social topic hence my review.

Going in this movie I did not know about the Homeless World Cup at all. Never heard from it so I was surprised when I Googled it and found out it was a real thing. It was on my watchlist because I'm a huge fan of Bill Nighy to be honest.

The chemistry of that man holds the film together with Michael Ward. Loved every minute of it. Refreshing story, a feel good story that must be inspiring many soccer players out there. Reminded me a bit of Ted Lasso. And left me teary and I'm not even a soccer fan.

Great story, touching and emotional, I laughed and cried and was on the tip of my seat during the games. Very wholesome perfectly decent film.

Never knew until this movie that there is actually a world class soccer completion for Homeless Guys.

In this inspirational drama, Bill Nighy portrays a manager who is desperate to win the official Football WC for Homeless people after never ever winning a medal in his previous eleven attempts. So he assembles a group of guys who are sidelined by the society due to some or the other reason. Vinny is the main character of this bunch who seems like a professional footballer though you won't know his actual story till the end.

So can Mal (Bill Nighy) lead his bunch of outcasts representing England against the likes of South Africa, U. S. A., Italy and others? Can his group play like a team keeping aside their differences and personal ego's? You'll know the answers after watching this rare sports drama.

An uplifting sporting film showing how the game of football can change lives, even for the homeless, and in this case, for those who have lost their way. What makes it even more engaging is that the Homeless World Cup is an actual event, with stories taken from this international gathering and amalgamated to create this heartfelt journey set in the heavenly city of Rome.

The center of attention is a former semi-professional football player, Vinny Walker (convincing performance by Micheal Ward), who is released by the club even before his career took off. He joins a group of mismatched homeless men with assorted problems of their own, and writer, Frank Cottrell Boyce, does a stellar job in bringing their stories together, creating a magic bond, with the help of director, Thea Sharrock. The living legend, Bill Nighy, gives it an extra boost, even when the story sometimes gets a little schmaltzy, this little gem still shows the passion and rewards of humility within the most beautiful game.

Overall this is a good movie that manages to deliver on the intended feel good wholesome vibe but i cant deny that it would have benefited greatly from some changes to the timing of some dialougs that makes them feel too forced at times, like Aldar's coment about him liking the sky in italy because there are no bombs in it which is a great piece of dialoug but it comes immidiatly after the reveal of his backstory in a moment that i dont think makes much sense for him to say that but had he said it in a more natural place it would have been great, like when they find vinny sleeping in a bench..