The Beautiful Game

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.

This movie makes you think of so many things all at once. With great acting, a story based on real events and a powerful message, this movie is something for all ages to watch. It's a movie about serious topics such as homelessness, addiction, teamwork, finding yourself and taking pride from what you achieve in stead of what you might have failed at in life. But most of all it's a message about how connecting with people makes you stronger, and how being alone isn't really being strong. It's also about looking beyond social status and seeing people for who they are, the ability to come together despite background if there's kindness and being able to recognize yourself in people you might not know could be someone you really needed. I highly recommend this movie, and as I said, it's for all ages!

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.

No pun intended - some call it soccer (actually mostly Americans do that. But the rest of the world calls it football - and if you consider how it is played, you have to admit it makes sense calling it that - more so than the other one (American Football that is).

But this is not about the differences - this is about the game itself. And while it is constrained and really plays in a ... well box, it is mostly about the characters, about the people involved. So while the title is talking about the game itself, the movie dives into the people playing it (no pun intended when I say diving - if you know football, you know what I mean).

This is a feelgood movie and I don't think it has many surprises for most who watch this. Just enjoy the ride and the pitch is ... yours.

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..