Since The Successity Blog only intended to write film reviews about movies I had enjoyed rather than merely tolerated, I wasn’t expecting to be writing here about THE PHANTOM OF THE OPEN. I found the radio trailers cringeworthy and the cinema trailers ridiculously slapstick.
When I saw the film, however, my heart was entranced. Mark Rylance plays Maurice Flitcroft, the struggling redundant ex-crane driver who relatively late in life falls in love with golf and eventually shoots the worst round in the history of the Open, to the deep chagrin of the golfing authorities.
Rylance conveys Flitcroft superbly, with consistent charm and accenting that is a testament, in its own light, frothy way, to his considerable acting talent. He is accompanied by Sally Hawkins as his wife, Jean, who compliments Rylance perfectly in a role that is arguably all too easy for her. It might have been nice from a conflict perspective if Hawkins had fallen out of love with Rylance or become disillusioned with his dream, but, constant in her love for and belief in him, that never happened.
The film, directed by Craig Roberts, does have an element of slapstick, but it is tempered and grounded by a sense of gritty Northern British realism so that it never gets out of control.
If The Successity Blog has a major criticism it is that the movie is uneven in tone. Not only is there a jolt between, as I say, the gritty Northern realism and the slapstick, but there is also a healthy dose of magical, fantasy scenes which take you out of the narrative and make you have to think too hard about what they symbolise. While they are perhaps a relief from the grit and grime of Flitcroft’s downtrodden circumstances, I did suspect at one point had I walked into the wrong screening and was watching an episode of The Clangers. I wonder could the fantasy messaging have been achieved in a less jarring, more realistic way?
Ultimately, though, the film is extremely heart-warming and entertaining, and (against myself) I found myself laughing out loud on several occasions. Ultimately it is the story of a man in adversity who, having failed at sport and crane-driving, finds success in other aspects of life because of those failures. A message which The Successity Blog can wholly support.
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