Un but pour la gloire

I just saw this movie on TV, and watched mainly for the appearance of Michael Keaton, one of my favorite actors, who always does a great job, whether in a comedy or a drama. This film is well worth watching, in particular for Robert Duvall's performance, and his mastery of the Scottish accent. When I first heard him speak I had to look twice, to be sure it was "himself". What a heartwarming, and exciting film it is! Even if you're not a soccer fan, there is plenty of action, along with the heart and humor. Most entertaining.

9/13 12:45 pm A SHOT AT GLORY (***)

Well-made but conventional sports drama. Long on well-filmed Scottish football scenes, short on emotional impact. Director Michael Corrente introduced the film and returned with stars Robert Duvall and Ally McCoist for the Q & A. The Q & A was brief but it was revealed that all the actors were actual football players, which accounts for the lack of characterization in the story.

So bad it's good, but so bad it is. Duvall is how I would imagine the late Bill Shankly would sound if you had slipped him a mickey containing LSD. How a great actor of his stature came to be in this turkey can only be attributed to his legendary drinking sessions with Jimmy Johnstone going beyond the wee small hours and into the twilight zone.

Surprisingly the cheeky chappie and rookie actor, ex Rangers player Ally McCoist is not as excruciating to watch as others who should know better in this. Michael Keaton looks as stunned as a cow on a quiz show, as he tries to work out what the hell is going on here.

I laughed when I'm sure I wasn't meant to and for the rest of the movie my toes curled so much that I got cramp.

In the name of the beautiful game, avoid this like the plague.

I hired this movie on a recent return to Scotland and sat through all of it in spite of myself. It is utterly lamentable. Bobby Duvall sets the tone by attempting a 'Scottish' accent that had me laughing and grimacing in equal turns. By striking co-incidence my neighbours used to have a gardener from Belarus who sounded very similar to Bob so I understood what he was saying. Michael Keaton was in it too but his appearances were so infrequent and so utterly pointless that he gave the appearance of a confused crew member wandering on to the set. "Super" Ally McCoist is about the best thing in it and he never rises above "Days of Our Lives" levels of pseudo-acting . Apparently Bobby struggled to get studio funding for this (No ! Surely not !) and had to fund much of it personally as it was a labour of love. Maybe for him. For me it was a dreadful waste of time and money.

It's difficult to make a movie about football (soccer) that will satisfy one's appetite for interesting match scenes as well as a desire for a worthwhile plot. 'A Shot at Glory' certainly does not pull this off, but it is an attempt worth watching in any case.

The plot is rather mediocre, but at least it is somewhat linked to the fortunes of the team itself. Nosy American owner (Keaton) buys team, threatens to move it to Ireland if aging coach (Duvall) can't win the Scottish Cup. The second strand of the plot involves the former Golden Boot winner (McCoist) brought in by the owner, who is the somewhat estranged son-in-law of the coach. The third element, of course, is the performance of the team itself. There is certainly some awful dialog in the film, but it quickly passes from memory once the matches begin.

In comparison to 'Bend It Like Beckham' and 'Mean Machine,' the two football-related films 'A Shot at Glory' can easily be weighed against, the film at hand establishes itself as the clear choice in terms of the realism of the matches. The experience of watching each match is rather like watching a cinematic version of Championship Manager -- there is very little continuity between moves, but it somehow seems to make sense.

At the end of the day, 'A Shot at Glory' is well worth watching if you are looking for a well-executed football movie. The plot may be formulaic, but the match scenes put many others to shame.