Yeah, oops, skipped a few days there due to hectic real life type real life-iness so let’s double up for a few days to crack on through this, especially asd the festival’s been over for a week now!
The Phantom Of The Open
Dir. Craig Roberts / Dur. 102 mins
Strand:- Special Presentation
In A Nutshell:- Based on a true story, crane operator Maurice Flitcroft dreams big and gets himself a place in the British Open. The catch? He’s never played golf before…
The Good:- It’s a tricky line to walk - crafting a film whose main character you are meant to laugh at but not in a way that is condescending or pitying. It’s a line that, for the most part, screenwriter Simon Farnaby and star Mark Rylance manage to balance thanks to the humour of the script and Rylance’s portrayal of Flitcroft as a decent if fanciful man. Credit must go to Sally Hawkins as well for giving his wife Jean a sense of dignity and steeliness that stop her from being someone caught up in a madman’s scheme. It’s funny and heartwarming in equal measure with supporting performances that compliment the central ones perfectly.
The Bad:- It wobbles on the edge of veering into sentimentality a few times but is pulled back from that particular brink by the performances of Rylance and Hawkins.
The Verdict:- If you’re after a genuinely funny feelgood film with a distinctly British flavour (after all, we love to root for a talentless underdog) then this is definitely one for you.
Screening Notes:- No Q&A at the end as it was one of the gala screenings (in fact, it was the world premiere) but we did get intro from director Craig Roberts alongside Simon Farnaby, Mark Rylance and other cast members (plus one of Maurice Flitcroft’s sons). There isn’t ever too much said in the intro as it’s difficult to say much without spoiling the film.
The Odd-Job Men
Dir. Neus Ballús / Dur. 85 mins
Strand:- Laugh
In A Nutshell:- Blurring the line between fact and fiction, we follow a week in the life of new recruit plumber Moha as he comes to work with the soon-to-retired Pep and the less-than-thrilled-to-be-working-with-him Valero…
The Good:- It’s an enjoyable slice of life drama that follows the three plumbers as they work on the various jobs required of them throughout a working week. The cast give great performances considering that they are actual plumbers, albeit ones who've been put into fictional situations.
The Bad (Me):- Full disclosure - I hit the traditional “mid Festival slump” during this film and struggled to keep my eyes open. The “Bad” here is my inability to be fully focussed on the film - it’s a gently paced film and this was, sadly for me, the wrong film to have at this point in the fest.
The Verdict:- It’s an enjoyable view into the world of the odd-job men, held together by the three central performances.
Q&A Notes:- Definitely an unusual set up for a film - a mixture of scripted and documentary. Scripted in the sense that the director scripted out the situations they would find themselves in but documentary in that they weren't given any advance notice of what was going to happen, each situation had a genuine plumbing problem and they were left to sort it out by themselves (however, given the director present the best part of two years prepping the film with them between their day job, she had a reasonable idea of how they would react in those situations).
The director spent her time sneaking her way into various plumbing schools during the initial search for subjects and must have seen somewhere in the region of 1000 plumbers for the main roles.
The ending of the film originally took place in a hairdressers but was reshot after it became clear this wasn’t really working.
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