Goal! - Naissance d'un prodige

Overwhelming under-dog story that has been done a hundred times and is definitely cliché-riddled, but I loved it nevertheless. "Goal!: The Journey Begins" is the first of a trilogy as a young Mexican illegal immigrant (Kuno Becker) in Los Angeles has a chance at the brass ring in England of all places playing soccer for one of their professional teams after being discovered by scout/former player Stephen Dillane. Tony Plana (always under-rated and excellent) is outstanding as Becker's cold father and Marcel Iures gives an incredible performance as the British team's head coach. Becker also unwittingly teaches a brash superstar (Alessandro Nivola) who has forgotten the real reasons why he plays soccer why the game is so important and also finds companionship in a strange land with beautiful nurse Anna Friel. Great cinematography and a wonderful score make for a very moving and entertaining experience as the film touches strong emotions of love, friendship, sacrifice and ultimate success against all odds. A bit long and not totally original, but still done well enough to be a winner that does accomplish its goal in the end. 4 stars out of 5.

Yes, this is another sports biography that offers a stage on which to play out the drama of the possibilities of dreams of the disenfranchised to become a reality. There are many, many films like this one and will doubtless be more: something there is about the 'team spirit' in the identity crisis of whether or not the poor (financially) new guy will be able to make the physical grade that draws large audiences. It is a formula and it often works despite weak structure and production values.

In the case of GOAL! THE DREAM BEGINS the viewer can put aside the doubts as to whether the film can make it on its own: this little low profile movie is well written (Mike Jefferies's story adapted for the screen by Adrian Butchart), well directed by Danny Cannon who knows well how to integrate live sports scenes into the drama, and consistently well acted by a troop of excellent actors, beginning with the very vibrant, handsome, and charismatic Kuno Becker ('Lucia, Lucia', 'Imagining Argentina', 'Once Upon a Wedding', 'English as a Second Language'), a 28 year old Mexican actor with an assured future in the lead role of Santiago. The supporting roles are classy contributions by the gifted Alessandro Nivola ('The Sisters', 'Junebug', 'The Clearing', 'Laurel Canyon', 'Love's Labour's Lost', 'Mansfield Park' etc), the very beautiful Anna Friel, Stephen Dillane, Marcel Iures, Tony Plana, Miriam Colon to mention only a few.

The story is secondary: as a child devotee of soccer Santiago immigrates illegally into the US with his family, grows up in Los Angeles working as a gardener, a dishwasher and other menial tasks while he consumes his spare time with developing his unique talents for soccer. Despite his father's insistence that he remain with the family business of gardening, Santiago is discovered by a scout on vacation from England, a bond develops and soon Santiago is off to Newcastle to pursue his dream of being a professional soccer player. The rest is pretty obvious - the ups and downs of an asthmatic kid competing in the wild world of sports. The star of the moment is Alessandro Nivola and despite the differences in their goals and social life they become friends who help each other in tender ways. There is of course a love interest, telephone calls and encouragement form Santiago's grandmother, adjustments to life in the UK -all altering the road toward Santiago's eventually attained goal.

The film is a bit lengthy (two hours) for the content, but then we understand this is the first of a trilogy, so get used to the story and the characters as they all remain constant for the next two installments. Whatever reservations you may have about sitting through another predictable sports movie just relax them: Kuno Becker alone is worth the time invested in this very fine little film. Grady Harp

Sports movies, with very few exceptions are usually dire fare, and football movies in particular tend to be nonsensical montages weaved around clichéd sub plots. "Goal !" doesn't entirely eradicate these problems but its does make a substantially better fist of it that any that have gone before. It has to be said that one of the most significant reasons for this considerable improvement was the choice of the hugely experienced Lucinda Syson as casting director. Kuno Becker in the lead role was a revelation, not only did he have the acting chops to cruise through the non-football segments but he was entirely plausible as a player, with the build and movement of a decent professional. Anna Friel was perfect as the Geordie love interest and one of the most pleasing performances in the movie was Marcel Iures as Newcastle manager, Erik Dornhelm. Iures' research for the role was obviously extensive and he came over as a perfect amalgam of Mourinho, Wenger and Eriksson, with his authority and intelligence to the fore every time he was on screen. A special mention also has go to Alessandro Nivola who I didn't know or recognise prior to watching the movie and it was only while browsing through DVD special features that I saw to my surprise that he was in fact, American. He had absolutely mastered the London accent and was entirely convincing as the over-paid, over-sexed Cockney wide-boy. To the plot and the action then, both of which were mostly satisfactory and often appealing but quite some way short of perfect. While it was at least remotely conceivable that an amateur player from the barrio could be spotted and coaxed to the U.K., it was after Munez' arrival in Newcastle that the contrivances happened a little too regularly, the most blatant being his overwhelming luck at being in the taxi that was called off course to pick up a wayward star and the second chance that came with that startling co-incidence. The football action was as convincing, in my opinion, as any "staged" football will ever get, and this was helped by weaving footage of the actors into genuine game tape, a process which, it has to be said, was done almost seamlessly and is unlikely to be bettered. In summary then, Danny Cannon has made a pleasing movie, with a great cast, that at long last does some justice to the world's biggest game. It's not perfect, but its fast, it's fun and for the most part, fairly convincing.

This film is basically Rocky but with a football. It's a rags-to-riches tale of a promising Mexican youngster with nothing in life, apart from incredible footballing skills.

Some of the CGI football shots are poor, but the budget for this film was not massive, and they did what they could. The use of cameos from the likes of Shearer, Zidane, Beckham and Raul added to both the credibility and believability of the overall piece.

The film is sad and at times funny, and can be enjoyed by the whole family, including people with no interest in football. It's a story of triumph over adversity, and of people pulling together to help someone get ahead in life, by doing what they do best.

Overall, this is the best football film ever made, in my opinion. You can tell that the people who made it knew their subject matter - something that simply cannot be said for Green Street (Hooligans) which concentrated on fan violence, rather than the beautiful game.

This movie was tops! It's a great film pretty much anyone in your family could see and enjoy. The way it was released here in the States as a PG film with some scenes edited out, it's inoffensive enough. I've since gotten the DVD bootleg floating around here in New York and have seen the edited scenes. They really weren't necessary to make the film a good one (so you're not missing anything if you're only seeing the version released here in the States).

It was really nice to see less known actors in the roles. I'm personally sick and tired of the same little old crowd always getting parts in everything. It's a fantastic mixture when you can get an actor who is well known in Romania (Marcel Iures) but relatively unknown in the rest of the world and Kuno Becker (again known in Latin America but unknown to everyone else) and put them in a British film with a U.S. actor (Alessandro Nivola) along with British actors. Really clever, nice ethnic mix and an unusual one--less predictable than the usual casting that goes on out there--kinda opens the pool of actors that we're currently exposed to all the time.

A lot of people are complaining about the football (soccer) aspects of the movie saying that it's not real, etc. But I think they're failing to see that the movie is not about the sport itself (although I think there's a fair amount of that in there as well) as much as it is about the people who play it and some of the backstage politics that are linked with it. I thought these were shown tactfully and were just enough as they were coupled with the human factor --the lives of the players, their loves, their hates, competitive spirit, etc.

What was good about having a Latino as a protagonist in the film is that it shows the wider scope of fans football has. It is not only popular in Europe but in Latin America as well. The film could have easily gone down the eurocentric route of making the story about a European case, but this made it a bit more unusual and interesting. Since Santiago was an illegal immigrant who obviously took the great risk to come to the States and didn't really have much going for him here (as is the case for most illegal immigrants anyway and is becoming more and more true with the newer policies being undertaken here) his risk of going to England to try his luck there is completely plausible to me. I have actually seen similar things tried by other Latinos going to Europe to see if their luck is better there than here for obtaining residence, etc.

Some people may feel that the portrayal of the Latino family was stereotypical, but on the whole, I thought it was positive with the characters being honest and working hard for a living rather than being common hoodlums as they are sadly put forth in many films. Santiago was shown to be a modest young man who is not too full of himself and a generally likable character.