FLAWED BUT HEART WARMINGLY FUNNY
The story of the world’s worst golfer is effortlessly charming
Golf has never really thrived on the big screen. If it wasn’t for the connection with golf, we probably wouldn’t bother watching Tin Cup or Happy Gilmore again. But The Phantom of the Open is different. It is about so much more than just golf or a sporting underdog. Simon Farnaby has created a script that is amiably daft, but still draws you in with a strong British cast and a true story which has thematic parallels with Eddie the Eagle.
The film is based on the 2010 book of the same name and stars Sir Mark Rylance as Maurice Flitcroft, a 46-year-old crane operator who makes the most of a loophole in the admission’s rules and cheekily enters Open Qualifying as a self-declared professional. There’s just one issue. He’s never played the game before.
Armed with a cheap set of mail-order golf clubs, he ends up shooting the highest round in Open history (a 49-over-par 121). The R&A secretary, brilliantly played by Rhys Ifans, bans him from all their courses in the UK, but Maurice keeps on gate-crashing competitions with disguises and fake names such as Arnold Palmtree and Gene Pacecki (as in pay cheque).
The film bounces along to a brilliant ’70s soundtrack and is at its best in examining how Maurice’s eccentricity affects his long-suffering wife Jean, played by Sally Hawkins, and their three sons. Maurice wins you over by defying the snobbery of other golfers and maintaining his optimism, but at times the film veers into the realms of silliness with fantastical dream sequences and a golf-buggy police chase. Towards the end, we even see a golfer (clearly meant to be Tiger Woods) giving a speech and revealing that he was inspired by watching Maurice on TV.
Regular golfers will spot some other flaws (such as clubs being grounded in the bunker), but if you can ignore those, our hero provides a pertinent lesson in morality and how you do not need to win at golf or life to find happiness. We can all learn something from that.