[FILM]
THE PHANTOM OF THE OPEN
Crazy golf: Mark Rylance (far right) becomes an unlikely sports hero.
★★★
OUT 18 MARCH CERT TBC / 102 MINS
DIRECTOR Craig Roberts
CAST Mark Rylance, Sally Hawkins, Rhys Ifans
PLOT Barrow-In-Furness, 1976. Maurice Flitcroft (Rylance) is a shipyard crane operator facing the employment scrapheap. Inspired by watching the US Open on TV and encouraged by his supportive wife, Jean (Sally Hawkins), Maurice decides to enter the British Open — without ever having picked up a golf club in his life.
THE PHANTOM OF The Open is the kind of heart-warming, unlikely true-life tale that has become a mainstay of Brit cinema. Filed under the ‘triumph of the underdog’ sports-film subset — see Eddie The Eagle and Dream Horse — Craig Roberts’ third feature follows the template to a tee, but still comes up with a winning, likeable, zero-to-kinda-hero tale. Adapted by Simon Farnaby from the non-fiction book he co-wrote with Scott Murray, Phantom shares the good naturedness that runs through Farnaby’s Paddington 2 screenplay but lacks the tension and emotional heft to deliver a sucker punch.