A stirring, if predictable, home win for Bill Nighy

The Beautiful Game 12A cert, 125 min ★★★★★ Dir Thea Sharrock Starring Bill Nighy, Micheal Ward, Valeria Golino, Susan Wokoma, Kit Young, Callum Scott Howells, Aoi Okuyama, Tom Vaughan-Lawlor, Robin Nazari

Football’s infinite capacity to depress is not the side of our national sport that British cinema is ever likely to dwell on. But its capacity to inspire, to uplift, to get people, quite literally, off the streets? That’s what the Homeless World Cup, founded in 2001, is all about, and it’s what The Beautiful Game is all about.

Inspired by many stories from the past two decades of this initiative, this feel-good footie drama has an unassailable generosity of spirit. As with any film to which the tag “wellmeaning” might be applied, there’s a hurdle of predictability to overcome. It uses some hoary devices but resistance, eventually, is futile.

We start in London with extalent-scout Mal (Bill Nighy) moving the final pieces into place for sending England’s homeless squad to Rome. Mal’s squad for the tournament have a collective air of amateurish bumbling, until a loner, Vinny (Micheal Ward), catches his eye. Vinny’s fast and has flair, but won’t admit to being unhoused and could hardly be less of a team player.

The backgrounds of the other lot are given featherweight sketches in Frank Cottrell-Boyce’s script. One assumes they’ll be seeing the Eiffel Tower; one’s a kleptomaniac who gets on the plane with an armful of stolen duty-free. Vinny’s meant to be sharing a room with the chatterbox Nathan (Callum Scott Howells), who’s a recovering heroin addict on methadone. Exit Vinny with zero sympathy, preferring a park bench.

The games are crisply handled, even if you may lose count of how many times Nighy does a jubilant fist-pump. This is a performance from his back pocket – sprightly, making it look a cinch. The grit in the oyster is all Ward’s, and making Vinny such an unfriendly refusenik until a gallingly late stage is Cottrell-Boyce’s best move.

Even if many a plot point feels mechanical, Cottrell-Boyce and director Thea Sharrock get away with it for one overriding reason: the star wattage coming off Ward is once-per-generation stuff. Whether he’s scowling in frustration, charging singlemindedly at goal, or cracking a reluctant grin, his talent jolts the whole film into life.

In cinemas now; on Netflix from next Friday

Pumped up: Bill Nighy as Mal, in charge of England’s homeless football squad