movie review phantom of the open

The Phantom of the Open

“The Phantom of the Open” belongs to a very particular brand of British comedy: twee, true tales of plucky underdogs accomplishing outrageous acts against the odds. Think “ Calendar Girls ,” “ Eddie the Eagle ,” or “ Military Wives .” The humorless naysayers of society doubt them and mock them to mask their own insecurities, but still, these true believers trudge on toward their unlikely destiny. The tone is usually dryly cheeky, and maybe even a bit naughty, but ultimately these films give in to their easiest and most crowd-pleasing instincts before dissolving in a pile of sentimental goo.

This is that, but with golf.

Mark Rylance dons a colorful argyle vest and jaunty red bucket hat to play Maurice Flitcroft , who infamously shot the worst round in British Open history in 1976. You see, he didn’t belong there. He was a crane operator at a shipyard in working-class Barrow-in-Furness. He faked his way into the prestigious tournament by fudging the paperwork, albeit in good-natured fashion. His sweetly adoring wife, Jean ( Sally Hawkins ), even helped him with this task, benignly making up answers to questions about his handicap and such. He didn’t know it was wrong, the film suggests. He just wanted to play golf—something he’d never actually done in his life. And he became a celebrated figure in the process.

But director Craig Roberts —working from a script by Simon Farnaby , based on Farnaby and Scott Murray ’s biography of Flitcroft—never really gets to the heart of Flitcroft’s pursuit. Why does golf, of all activities, become his sudden obsession? We see him witness Tom Watson winning the Open on television in 1975. But what was it about this victory in this sport that was so transfixing? That crucial piece to understanding him feels missing; without this nugget of character development, “The Phantom of the Open” is just an airy, formulaic lark, with an especially mannered Rylance performance at the center. His thick accent does much of the acting for him, with a healthy sprinkling of quirks and tics. He’s just super sunny and adorable in every circumstance. Could Flitcroft really have been so irrepressibly optimistic? A suspension of disbelief in his childlike innocence only goes so far.

There’s even less to Hawkins’ character. Aside from a few tender moments between her and Rylance, she’s frustratingly stuck functioning as the doting, supportive wife, and not much else. The fact that she knows even less about golf is played for simple laughs. Meanwhile, Rhys Ifans is singularly smug and villainous as the head of the British Open who’s constantly chasing Flitcroft out; he’s the Wile E. Coyote to Rylance’s Roadrunner.

Flitcroft’s story was wild, but there’s a much crazier movie in here that “The Phantom of the Open” hints at but never fully embraces. Roberts dabbles in magical realism, such as when Flitcroft imagines the Earth is a golf ball he’s orbiting. He also tries to jazz up the story with muscular filmmaking techniques like whip pans and bold needle drops, which feels like he’s doing Craig Gillespie doing Paul Thomas Anderson doing Martin Scorsese . (Some of them are distractingly anachronistic, such as when Flitcroft and his buddy/caddy steal a golf cart and try to escape a tournament they’ve sneaked into with Christopher Cross’ “Ride Like the Wind” blaring in the background. This happens in 1978; the song wouldn’t come out until two years later. Nitpicky? Maybe a little, but in theory, they’re trying to invoke a specific time period.)

No, the fact that Flitcroft would put on wigs and mustaches and enter various tournaments under hilariously terribly pseudonyms like Gene Paycheki, Arnold Palmtree, and Count Manfred von Hoffmanstel is a far more interesting story. And he did this for years! There’s a sly, playful caper lying in wait here—something along the lines of “ Catch Me If You Can ,” perhaps. Instead, “The Phantom of the Open” takes the safe route and turns feel-good. Flitcroft became a cult hero to struggling golfers everywhere, the film shows us, culminating in a heart-tugging scene of tearful family reconciliation.

With its amusing training montages, colorful supporting characters, and uplifting message of perseverance, “The Phantom of the Open” does exactly what you expect it will in the most familiar, comforting manner imaginable. It earns the politest of golf claps.

Now playing in theaters.

Christy Lemire

Christy Lemire is a longtime film critic who has written for RogerEbert.com since 2013. Before that, she was the film critic for The Associated Press for nearly 15 years and co-hosted the public television series “Ebert Presents At the Movies” opposite Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, with Roger Ebert serving as managing editor. Read her answers to our Movie Love Questionnaire here .

• Mark Rylance as Maurice Flitcroft
• Rhys Ifans as Keith Mackenzie
• Sally Hawkins as Jean Flitcroft
• Simon Farnaby as Laurent Lambert
• Mark Lewis Jones as Cliff
• Jonah Lees as James Flitcroft
• Christian Lees as Gene Flitcroft
• Ash Tandon as Lloyd Donovan
• Ian Porter as Dick Nelson
• Jake Davies as Michael Flitcroft
• Craig Roberts
• Isobel Waller-Bridge
• Jonathan Amos

Cinematographer

Writer (book).

• Scott Murray
• Simon Farnaby

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‘the phantom of the open’: film review.

Mark Rylance and Sally Hawkins star in a comic drama based on the true story of a British man who made sports history as the world’s worst golfer.

By Sheri Linden

Sheri Linden

Senior Copy Editor/Film Critic

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Maurice Flitcroft might not have explicitly endorsed George Carlin’s pronouncement that “golf is an arrogant, elitist game,” but, in their goofy way, his late-’70s exploits made the same point. A shipyard crane operator from northern England, he breached the barricades of one of the sporting world’s most snobbish realms, the British Open, with blunt-force naïveté and more than a bit of chutzpah, passing himself off as a pro golfer when he barely knew how to play. He earned a place in the annals of the prestigious championship with the worst score in its history, a whopping 121. After the initial reactions of raised eyebrows and WTF snickers subsided, Flitcroft’s fearless ineptitude on the fairway struck a chord among the non-country-club rank and file and captured the imagination of sports page editors.

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As told in The Phantom of the Open , Flitcroft’s nose-thumbing heroics are inseparable from the story of a family’s love. It’s a mix that doesn’t always hit the green, but it’s never far off the mark. The movie’s wry hijinks and spirited affection for its characters prove gratifying. In its pairing of ace British actors — Mark Rylance and Sally Hawkins — and in its strange-but-true tale of working-class Brits breaking the rules, Phantom recalls The Duke (also a Sony Pictures Classics release), although that recent Jim Broadbent–Helen Mirren starrer has a heavier undercurrent. Working from Simon Farnaby’s adaptation of the 2010 book he wrote with Scott Murray, director Craig Roberts has made an uneven but endearing film that honors Flitcroft with an eye toward workaday realities as well as slapstick absurdity.

The Phantom of the Open

Release date: Friday, June 3

Cast: Mark Rylance, Sally Hawkins, Rhys Ifans

Director: Craig Roberts

Screenwriter: Simon Farnaby; based on the book by Farnaby and Scott Murray

In the helmer’s previous feature, Eternal Beauty , starring Hawkins as a woman diagnosed with schizophrenia, self-acceptance was inextricable from rebellion against convention. Roberts’ interest in that equation, and in the wide world of neurodiversity, carries into the new film, with Rylance’s performance a fluctuating mix of earnest transparency and harebrained tricksterism that just skirts wise-fool twee-ness.

When we first see Maurice, after he’s become “a legend,” his innocuous eccentricity is signaled in a preference for six sugars in his tea, that taste for sweetness matched by a childlike sense of wonder. A key factor in Maurice’s biography is revealed in the capsule backstory delivered over the opening credits: Like many children in English cities during World War II, he was sent away, to a place where the risk of bombing wasn’t as great. During his time in Scotland, his young eyes were opened to the idea of possibilities beyond the shipbuilding industry that dominated his hometown, the Cumbrian port of Barrow-in Furness, where all good boys were expected to follow their fathers into the business.

But as the main action begins, Maurice is in his late 40s and a long-timer at the Vickers Shipyard, his dreams of a more creative life shelved while he raised three boys with Jean (Hawkins). An opportunity to rekindle the fire of inspiration arrives in the form of bad news, courtesy of eldest son Mike (Jake Davies), a suit-and-tie man in the management tier at Vickers: The company is about to be nationalized, with massive layoffs in store. Jean, a no-fuss woman of enormous warmth and humility — played to perfection by Hawkins, who has made an art form of positivity — urges Maurice to seize the moment: “It’s your turn now,” she tells her husband.

Having been introduced to the newfangled wonder of a television remote, Maurice finds his new calling while channel surfing: He sees American golfer Tom Watson winning the first of his British Open titles. Triumph, fame, prize money and fresh air — seems like a good way to go to Maurice, and a lucky putt in the living room seems like a sign. This is his destiny. With the wholehearted support of Jean and their teenage twins, disco-dancing enthusiasts Gene and James (Christian Lees and Jonah Lees), and to the exasperation of status-conscious Mike, Maurice pursues his quest to play in the 1976 Open. His guileless letter to a TV sportscaster asking how to sign up for the tournament is mistaken for a note from a kid.

And when his scrawled entry form for the qualifying competition of the Open arrives at the organizers’ offices, a female assistant senses something odd, but it’s beyond the reckoning of her male bosses, led by Rhys Ifans ’ Keith McKenzie, that anyone would call themselves a professional golfer if they’re not. Maurice, meanwhile, learns the sport’s lingo and buys whatever gear he can afford. “So shiny, aren’t they?” he enthuses about his newly purchased clubs. He adds an argyle vest to his wardrobe, wearing it beneath his work clothes like a secret superhero costume.

At the Open, Maurice quickly proves himself an unintentional affront to professionalism, tradition and propriety, leaving the other players baffled while a sympathetic reporter (Ash Tandon) sparks to a juicy story. Ifans’ atypical turn as the punctilious walkie-talkie-wielding McKenzie is just the right counterpoint to the relentless optimism Rylance channels, even after Maurice gleans that “open” is not a literal description. Determined to keep this embarrassing transgression secret, McKenzie urges Maurice to “quietly gather up your things.” But word gets out, and a PR battle ensues between the two men, with McKenzie intent on banning the gleeful culprit from all clubs across the U.K.

In working people’s pubs, Maurice is cause for celebration. Among Mike’s wheeling-and-dealing business colleagues, he’s a laughingstock. Unfolding in the years when Margaret Thatcher was ascending the political ranks and the Sex Pistols were scandalizing the nation, Maurice’s escapades offer a middle-aged, salt-of-the-earth version of punk protest. He’s utterly sincere and charmingly ridiculous. That he would pull off return appearances at the British Open in various guises — once using the name Arnold Palmtree — is one of the delights of his story.

With strong performers holding the center, the constant nudging assurance of the score is unnecessary. But such upbeat period songs on the soundtrack as “Build Me Up Buttercup,” “Nothing From Nothing” and “Ride Like the Wind” — the latter during the inevitable golf cart chase — are perfectly in tune with the movie’s feel-good bounce, as are the twins’ sprightly dance moves.

A closing chapter that finds Maurice being honored stateside pulls together the feature’s core threads in winning fashion: his longing for recognition in the world, the strained relations with Mike, and the love story between Maurice and Jean. His words of tribute to his wife are lovely, but it’s in the way Hawkins’ Jean takes them in that the sequence achieves its heartwarming zing.

That’s one of the more subtle moments in Phantom of the Open , which otherwise wears its crowd-pleasing movie heart on its sleeve. Roberts’ approach is not quite heavy-handed, but it can be obvious. Still, he never condescends to the Flitcrofts, and it’s impossible not to root for Maurice and his faux professionalism. Forty-odd years after his push for golf glory, we face an accolades glut that could use a few genial gate-crashers like him.

Full credits

Distributor: Sony Pictures Classics Production companies: BFI, BBC Film, Ingenious Media, Water & Power Productions, Baby Cow Productions Cast: Mark Rylance, Sally Hawkins, Rhys Ifans, Mark Lewis Jones, Christian Lees, Jonah Lees, Jake Davies, Johann Myers, Steve Oram, Tim Steed, Ash Tandon Director: Craig Roberts Screenwriter: Simon Farnaby Based on the book The Phantom of the Open: Maurice Flitcroft, The World's Worst Golfer by Simon Farnaby and Scott Murray Producers: Tom Miller, Nichola Martin, Kate Glover Executive producers: Mark Rylance, Simon Farnaby, Craig Roberts, Mark Gooder, Alison Thompson, Peter Touche, Christelle Conan, Mary Burke, Emma Duffy, Rose Garnett, Christine Langan, James Swarbrick Director of photography: Kit Fraser Production designer: Sarah Finlay Costume designer: Siân Jenkins Editor: Jonathan Amos Music: Isobel Waller-Bridge Casting: Shaheen Baig

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‘The Phantom of the Open’ Review: ‘The World’s Worst Golfer’ Wins Laughs

Inspired by Maurice Flitcroft’s stunningly bad results at the 1976 British Open, this comedy plays with a genre in which underdogs so often triumph.

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By Lisa Kennedy

The British comedy “The Phantom of the Open” — about a working man’s dreams of golf glory — features a few dreamlike sequences that suggest the director, Craig Roberts, is a fan of the 1946 fantasy romance, “Stairway to Heaven,” especially when a tiny golfer circles a golf ball the size of the moon.

Inspired by Maurice Flitcroft’s attempts to qualify for the British Open in 1976, this comedy is also the sort of good-hearted movie the director Frank Capra would have liked to have taken a swing at.

The actor Mark Rylance brings a mix of sorrow and optimism to his portrayal of Flitcroft, the shipyard crane operator who, encouraged by his wife, Jean (Sally Hawkins), to finally follow his dreams, enters the British Open. The rub: Neither of them knows anything about golf.

A different actor than Rylance might have revealed the slight darker, impostor wrinkles of the tale. Instead, his character, an unflummoxed optimist, shares some of the same cheery qualities as Ted Lasso.

“Phantom” opens with Maurice nervously awaiting a television interview years after his first try at the Open. The scene plays with a genre in which underdogs so often triumph. Maurice, it turns out, is stunningly bad. Simon Farnaby based the screenplay on his and the sports journalist Scott Murray’s biography, “The Phantom of the Open: Maurice Flitcroft, The World’s Worst Golfer.”

Maurice’s personal mantra is “practice is the road to perfection.” Even so, it may not get him there. His persistence will, however, aggravate golfing elites and mortify his stepson Michael (Jake Davies), who has been promoted by the shipyard higher-ups. The twins Christian and Jonah Lees bring a silly buoyancy to this already offbeat tale as Maurice and Jean’s championship, disco-dancing sons. (That, too, is based on fact.)

The Phantom of the Open Rated PG-13 for some strong language and smoking. Running time: 1 hour 46 minutes. In theaters.

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The Phantom of the Open

Maurice Flitcroft, a dreamer and unrelenting optimist, manages to gain entry to the 1976 British Open Golf Championship qualification round despite being a complete novice. Maurice Flitcroft, a dreamer and unrelenting optimist, manages to gain entry to the 1976 British Open Golf Championship qualification round despite being a complete novice. Maurice Flitcroft, a dreamer and unrelenting optimist, manages to gain entry to the 1976 British Open Golf Championship qualification round despite being a complete novice.

• Craig Roberts
• Scott Murray
• Simon Farnaby
• Mark Rylance
• Tommy Fallon
• 78 User reviews
• 72 Critic reviews
• 65 Metascore
• 2 nominations

Top cast 56

• Maurice Flitcroft

• Dick Nelson

• Young Maurice
• Genial Father

• Jean Flitcroft
• (as Austin Griffin)

• Michael Flitcroft

• Gene Flitcroft

• James Flitcroft

• Bruce Atkins
• Greenkeeper

• All cast & crew
• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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Did you know

• Trivia Maurice Flitcroft used to practise his golf on the playing fields of the local grammar school as he was banned from all golf courses in the area.
• Goofs The beginning of the movie shows what looks like an old globe and zooms in on an old map to Maurice childhood. However the map borders and countries are modern from today 2022.

Jean Flitcroft : I knew a young man once. Said he was gonna be somebody. Promised me diamonds, caviar, champagne. Travel the world, he said.

Maurice Flitcroft : Sounds like you-you should've married him.

• Crazy credits Before the final credits, actual archive footage is shown of interviews with Maurice that were featured during the film, showing that they actually happened.
• Connections Features Good Morning Britain (1983)
• Soundtracks Pick Up the Pieces Performed by Average White Band Written by Alan Gorrie , Malcolm Duncan , Robbie McIntosh (as Robert McIntosh), Onnie McIntyre (as Owen McIntyre), Roger Ball and Hamish Stuart (as James Hamish Stuart) Licensed courtesy of Demon Music Group Published by BMG Rights Management UK Ltd., a BMG company and by Joe's Songs Ltd. Administered by Wixen Music Publishing Ltd. and by Fairwood Music Ltd.

User reviews 78

• jacobbriscombe
• Mar 6, 2022
• How long is The Phantom of the Open? Powered by Alexa
• March 18, 2022 (United Kingdom)
• United Kingdom
• Official site (United Kingdom)
• Official site (United States)
• Acemi Golfçü
• Littlestone golf course, Littlestone, Kent, UK (Second Golf Tournamant)
• Baby Cow Productions
• British Film Institute (BFI)
• See more company credits at IMDbPro
• Jun 5, 2022

Technical specs

• Runtime 1 hour 46 minutes

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‘The Phantom of the Open’ Review: Mark Rylance Drives a Feel-Good Sports Movie About a Terrible Golfer

David ehrlich.

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A light and lyrical feel-good tale about Mancunian golf legend Maurice G. Flitcroft — the shipyard crane operator who improbably managed to enter himself into the 1976 British Open and then, even more improbably, became an international folk hero for his resilience in the face of humiliating scores — “The Phantom of the Open” is exactly what you might expect from an underdog sports film scripted by “Paddington 2” writer Simon Farnaby (and based on the book that he and Scott Murray published about Flintcroft in 2010). It’s charming as hell, it has precious little patience for English classism, and it hinges on a child-like outsider whose supernatural guilelessness has a tendency to steamroll over the cynics and gits who get in his way. It even co-stars Sally Hawkins , as all “Paddington” movies have, and all other movies should.

If “The Phantom of the Open” lacks the same magic that Farnaby helped sprinkle over the masterful comedies he co-wrote about the world’s sweetest bear, well, what doesn’t? It’s enough that this heartfelt delight makes par on its premise; there’s a birdie here and a bogey there, but director Craig Roberts (“Eternal Beauty”) keeps a firm grip on the film’s whimsical tone from start to finish, the former “Red Oaks” star finding a way to have fun with his shots without risking his straightforward approach to the pin.

Mark Rylance , whose post-“Bridge of Spies” performances in films like “Ready Player One” and “Don’t Look Up” have suffered from putting far too much sugar in a small cup of tea, embodies Maurice Flitcroft with such fidgety sweetness that he seems to be simpering toward self-parody by the end of the very first scene, and yet with “The Phantom of the Open” he’s found a movie that’s willing to meet the actor on his wavelength — a movie in which everything is so gently over-cranked that Rylance’s character feels more like a natural response to the world around him than he does an aberration from it.

Indeed, “The Phantom of the Open” works so well because Rylance’s all too legible affectations make it that much harder to parse Maurice’s heart. Does this doddering, workaday layman from the coal-gray shores of Barrow-in-Furness — a 47-year-old father of three who may have been totally oblivious to the mere existence of golf before catching a brain-snapping glimpse of a tournament on his family’s posh new three-channel TV — really believe that he can compete with the best players on Earth, or is he just having some kind of mid-life crisis prompted by Margaret Thatcher’s rise to power?

The film’s playful, almost fable-esque introduction to Maurice would suggest the former. It tells us of a young boy who was sent to Scotland during the war for his safety, and then returned to his dead-end town with a head so full of stars that not even several decades of blue-collar drudgery could dull its shine. To this day, his dreams still resemble deleted scenes from “A Matter of Life and Death.” And while Maurice’s cartoonish naiveté is a caricature of industrial simplicity, that exaggerated innocence is offset by the palpable hopes of a man who’s worked so hard for his sons to believe their dreams might actually come true — a man who’s proud that his teenage twins want to become professional disco dancers, and perhaps even prouder that his eldest, Michael (Jake Davies) has already climbed so high on the corporate ladder that his dad looks small from his perspective.

However you slice it, there’s more than a little eccentricity at play when Maurice decides to “have a crack at the British Open.” Sure, it’s a bit misleading when he checks the box labeled “professional” on the application, but it’s not his fault that the tournament administrators let him on the links ( Rhys Ifans plays the stuffed shirt elitist who runs the Royal & Ancient Golf Course, and — despite being unfamiliar with anyone named Maurice Flitcroft, simply assumes that no one would be stupid enough to lie about their status).

And Maurice is, indeed, quite bad at golf. He’s able to make contact with the ball, which is a bit surprising given Rylance’s eyes-closed swing, but it doesn’t tend to go very far, and Farnaby’s script has zero interest in pretending that it ever did in real life. On the contrary, “The Phantom of the Open” delights in how unbothered Maurice is by his play; one of the film’s best scenes sets him up for a dramatic putt, adopting the rhythms and grammar of every inspirational sports movie ever made… and then sticking with it as Maurice duffs the putt four times in a row.

Whip-pans, dance interludes, and a killer period soundtrack highlighted by the likes of Billy Preston and Christopher Cross apply winning energy to a losing streak that doesn’t skip a beat even after Maurice is kicked out of the tournament and forced to sneak onto the course in disguise. The simple joy of this story isn’t found in Maurice’s imagined victory, but rather through his refusal of defeat — his refusal to wallow in the gutter and cede the stars to the people born just shy of heaven. This world is what we make of it, and everyone is capable of having their say.

In a moment so wry and affecting that it could single-handedly power this movie through its misshapen structure and the sweet but labored subplots that hold it together with scotch tape (the most important of which being the embarrassment that Michael develops in response to his father’s overnight fame), Maurice walks out of the shipyard at the end of a shift and tears off his dull work coat to reveal the argyle golf sweater below. His willingness to step out of line and grab his clubs by the handle is enough to make him a bonafide superhero, even in spite of his handicap(s).

“The Phantom of the Open” isn’t always able to dramatize Maurice’s self-determination — the trajectory of his career isn’t especially well-suited to a three-act feature, and a greater emphasis on the deception required to keep playing might have unbalanced a movie that can’t afford its wide-eyed hero to become a full-blown trickster — but Roberts and Farnaby celebrate Maurice’s accomplishments with such a sincere degree of fun that it’s easy to keep golf-clapping along even after the film runs out of story to tell. Kit Fraser’s textured cinematography and Sarah Finlay’s loving production design lend the whole thing an almost Kaurismäki-dry winsomeness that Hawkins’ performance is able to capitalize upon with even the smallest of gestures.

It all comes together into an affable movie that, like its affable subject, doesn’t have any measurable ambition beyond getting the ball in the hole. And yet it could still make hardened souls cry a few tears in the back of an airplane, pick the rest of us up on a gray Sunday afternoon, and remind anyone struggling through stubbornly existential feelings of helplessness — which is another way of saying everyone — that the world is their oyster, even when it looks a lot more like a barnacle.

“The Phantom of the Open” is now playing in select theaters.

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‘The Phantom of the Open’ Review: Mark Rylance is Well Above Par in a Shaggy, Amiable Sports Comedy

This underdog golf biopic sometimes swings and whiffs with its hyper-quirky styling, but a bright script and game performances see it through.

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If Maurice Flitcroft hadn’t really existed, a British comedy would surely have invented him. A humble shipyard worker from Barrow-in-Furness who decided, on a rogue middle-aged whim, to enter the British Open despite never having played a round of golf in his life, he was practically a living, breathing Ealing Studios hero. That he managed to repeat the feat multiple times in multiple disguises over the years, earning himself the title of “the world’s worst professional golfer,” tips a real life into the realm of absurdity.

It’s tempting to say, then, that anyone taking on a Flitcroft biopic has a large part of the work done for them. The jokes write themselves, though in “ The Phantom of the Open ,” screenwriter Simon Farnaby and director Craig Roberts make them sweeter and spryer than they could have been, while a wide-eyed, bucket-hatted Mark Rylance plays Flitcroft with abundant generosity of spirit.

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If anything, “The Phantom of the Open” is a smidge too cuddly. Having scored with the delightful “Paddington 2” script, Farnaby essentially writes Flitcroft as a larger, de-furred version of the lovably bumbling bear, stumbling catastrophically through assorted farcical scenarios and somehow emerging a winner even when he loses. Like those family films, “Phantom” preaches an inarguable message of kindness in the face of human cruelty — though in the process it dodges any more cutting, ironic comedy about a man whose legacy of delusional ineptitude could warrant a more jaundiced satire. If its cuteness is a little one-note, however, that shouidn’t stop this warmly received BFI London Film Festival premiere from becoming a roaring crowdpleaser when it hits U.K. screens in 2022. And while it wears its Englishness like a St. George’s cross on its sleeve, the film’s combination of broad slapstick and moist-eyed nostalgia should prove eminently exportable.

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“I had dreams, but where I come from, it’s a small world,” Maurice explains in an introductory voiceover that offers a brisk summary of his life up to age 50: his low-paid, long-held job as a crane operator, his marriage to gold-hearted single mother Jean ( Sally Hawkins ), their raising of three sons, and, well, that’s about it for this little Briton. These opening reels of the film are its shakiest, as Roberts and Farnaby establish the Flitcrofts’ salt-of-the-earth Englishness in a shorthand form that only barely skirts condescension, while the filmmaking adopts an initial charm offensive — complete with dog reaction shots, feel-good vintage needle-drops and fish-eyed visual gimmickry — that’s all a little much. Roberts last directed Hawkins in the manically over-styled mental-health drama “Eternal Beauty,” and when it comes to the quirk factor, he’s still loath to say when.

Things settle into a more relaxed Britcom groove once Maurice, at a loose end with his children grown and retirement looming, finds his new calling — one that precisely no one else can hear. His sudden interest in golf, via a chanced-upon TV broadcast, is even presented as a kind of trippy religious revelation, with the humble golf ball a deified force, and the elaborate visual joke is intended to shut down any nagging questions as to why a sub-amateur golfer would enter a premier tournament. But enter it he does, and the fact that nobody stops him is a sly jab at the privileged, complacent gatekeeping of the golf establishment. “Why would anyone say they’re a professional if they’re not a professional?” asks supercilious tournament chief Lambert (Rhys Ifans), upon glancing at Maurice’s application.

Cue an amusingly shambolic training montage, leading into Maurice’s now-famously calamitous appearance at the Open — he shot a round of 121, the highest (or lowest, as it were) in the tournament’s history — and its fallout. Farnaby touches about as gently as possible on the media’s exploitation of Maurice’s anti-achievement, though the film is more interested in how our hero’s quixotic obsession alters the Flitcrofts’ family dynamic.

Jean remains staunchly supportive, while his twin sons James and Gene (Jonah and Christian Lees) are inspired by his far-fetched ambition to pursue their own dreams of becoming world disco-dancing champions. (Like much in “The Phantom of the Open,” this is a detail that seems overly confected but turns out to be preposterously true — though it wouldn’t have hurt to write the boys as actual characters rather than rubber-limbed props.) But it’s the agonized shame that eldest son Michael (a superb Jake Davies) feels over his father’s national-punchline status that gives the film a hint of soul behind its insistently smiley demeanor.

Rylance, too, is best when he lets slip a sliver of genuine hurt amid Maurice’s generally bluff nature. In the film’s loveliest scene — notable for its silence and simplicity against the busyness of everything else — he sits alone in the car on the night of his great Open failure, his face a tug-of-war between disappointment and elation. He’s lucky to be married on screen to Hawkins: Few actors could deliver the line “no one can say you didn’t try” with quite such sincere, toasty-warm empathy, even if she’s hardly tested by a stock supportive-wife part. (“You don’t have to look after us anymore, it’s your turn now,” Jean even simpers near the outset, as if she was ever going to come first in this story.)

A different, deeper, sadder movie would open up the secondary characters affected by Maurice Flitcroft’s strangely masochistic stunt, but it wouldn’t be as japey or audience-friendly or gosh-darn nice as this one. Twice, the film pokes fun at Maurice’s unwavering, straight-faced tea order — milk with six sugars, please — but it’s in no position to tease, really. “The Phantom of the Open” likes it just as sweet.

Reviewed at London Film Festival, Oct. 12, 2021. Running time: 106 MIN.

• Production: (U.K.) A BFI, BBC Film, Ingenious Media presentation of a Water and Power Prods., Baby Cow Prods. production. (World sales: Cornerstone Films, London.) Producers: Nichola Martin, Tom Miller, Kate Glover. Executive producers: Mary Burke, Christelle Conan, Emma Duffy, Rose Garnett, Mark Gooder, Christine Langan, James Swarbrick, Alison Thompson, Peter Touche.
• Crew: Director: Craig Roberts. Screenplay: Simon Farnaby, based on the book "The Phantom of the Open: Maurice Flitcroft, The World's Worst Golfer" by Farnaby and Scott Murray. Camera: Kit Fraser. Editor: Jonathan Amos. Music: Isobel Waller-Bridge.
• With: Mark Rylance, Sally Hawkins, Jake Davies, Rhys Ifans, Jonah Lees, Christian Lees.

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Review: Mark Rylance makes golf irresistible in inspiring true story ‘The Phantom of the Open’

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Wherever your opinion of golf lands, on a spectrum ranging from glorious sport to “a good walk spoiled” (Mark Twain’s assessment) to snobby nonsense, there are smiles to be wrested from fans and disparagers alike as the British charmer “The Phantom of the Open” — about “world’s worst golfer” Maurice Flitcroft (Mark Rylance) — runs its sweetly eccentric course.

That’s because the real-life story that director Craig Roberts and screenwriter Simon Farnaby are telling has a big-tent appeal born of nose-thumbing craftiness and establishment-needling, but also the type of dogged self-belief that attracts us to sports. A good-natured crane operator for a shipyard in Cumbria who decided in his mid-40s to take up golf after watching it on television, Flitcroft finagled his way into the 1976 British Open even though the sum total of his experience with his mail-order clubs was some practice thwacks at the beach. And yet he was pretty sure he could win it.

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Flitcroft, who died in 2007, was certainly a pretender; he simply labeled himself a “professional” on the submission form, and nobody was suspicious enough to challenge it. But few would argue that his sincere gambit — once the organizers, the press and the public noticed — brought some refreshingly cheeky folk-hero appeal to a notoriously wealth-identified, exclusionary game. (Screenwriter Farnaby adapted his own co-authored book on Flitcroft.)

You may see Flitcroft as a figure of ridicule or a hoax icon sticking it to gatekeepers or the ultimate aspiring amateur. The movie, however, shrewdly relishes all identities in its mix of the humor inherent in his prankish folly and the sentimentality of a pie-in-the-sky dream. In any case, Roberts’ easygoing, spry movie, arriving on the heels of “Eddie the Eagle” and “Dream Horse,” goes a good way toward keeping alive this engaging subgenre about improbable, beloved UK sports underdogs.

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A lot of the film’s charisma has to do with the Oscar winner at its center in the argyle vest, modest cap, false teeth and singsong northwest English accent. Rylance’s singularly off-kilter, paradoxical style of immersive characterization — appearing innocent yet seasoned, naturalistic and exaggerated — befits a man whose motives always seem just beyond our comprehension but who compels as the star of his own kooky fable.

Because Flitcroft’s adoring, supportive wife, Jean (Sally Hawkins sturdily selling a thankless role), works in children’s theater, Roberts occasionally gilds the dream-big mood with flights of effects-driven fantasy — sending Flitcroft off into a painted night sky as in in a storybook production. But these touches, not to mention the many needle drops from the era’s perkiest pop and soul, seem hardly necessary when Rylance’s shuffling, quirky brand of distracted optimism is its own engine of folksy positivity. (The more disco-ey song cues, though, at least have a basis in the reality of Flitcroft’s follow-your-bliss family — his twin sons Gene and James, whom he often used as caddies, were disco dancing champions, and their portrayers, Christian and Jonah Lees, provide plenty of onscreen buoyancy whether helping their dad or strutting their stuff.)

On the antagonist front, Rhys Ifans sputters amusingly as the horrified tournament authority eager to oust the interloper, but turning Flitcroft’s class-conscious eldest son, Mike (Jake Davies), into the embarrassed naysayer brings out the script’s more emotionally manipulative tendencies. More authentic heartstring-tugging arrives when the final act takes the action to an American golf club, followed by a laugh-out-loud ending like the smoothly sunk putt on a winning drive.

There’s a long history of British comedies celebrating idiosyncratic homegrown pluck while simultaneously sending up the circumstances that necessitate it, from the days when Ealing Studios ruled to the era that gave us “The Full Monty” and “Calendar Girls” and on to this year’s models, marked by “The Duke” and “The Phantom of the Open.” The UK’s supply of these stories is apparently endless, and if the breezily pleasurable “Phantom” is any indication, the rigorous mining for these oddball delights remains justified.

'The Phantom of the Open'

Rating: PG-13, for some strong language and smoking Running time: 1 hour, 46 minutes Playing: Starts June 3 at AMC Century City, AMC The Grove and Laemmle Royal

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The Phantom Of The Open Review

The Phantom Of The Open

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.

The film follows shipyard crane operator Maurice Flitcroft ( Mark Rylance , playing a kind of Paddington minus the duffel coat) who, approaching potential redundancy, took up golf, blagged his way into the 1976 Open Championship and became a quasi-folk hero for posting the worst round in the history of the tournament. Roberts sketches the Flitcroft’s family life in broad, voice-overed strokes before Maurice finds his true calling when he spots the US open playing one of his TV’s three channels, the moment delivered in charming lo-fi interstellar fantasy that sells the idea of this unlikely conversion. As Flitcroft starts his golfing odyssey, Roberts mixes visual pizzaz (fish-eye lenses) with crowd-pleasing gambits, be it training montages (there’s more ‘70s needle drops than Radio 2), cute dog reaction shots and comedy golf kart chases. The you-can-lose-at-sport-but-still-win-in-life messaging is loud and clear; it’s just all delivered in a scattershot manner.

There is a sharper film to be made here about the media’s fascination with failure, but Roberts plays it safe.

The facts of the story are so inherently filled with quirk — inspired by Maurice’s adventures, his twin sons (Jonah and Christian Lees) attempt to become world disco-dancing champions — you feel Roberts and Farnaby might have been better pushing against the whimsy. The closest the film comes to grit is in the relationship between Maurice and his social-climbing stepson Michael (a strong Jake Davies), the latter embarrassed by his stepdad’s celebrity idiot status. There is a sharper film to be made here about the media’s fascination with failure, but Roberts plays it safer: even in its populist larky wheelhouse, the potential conflicts are delivered so lightly — the golfing establishment is represented by Rhys Ifans ’ caricature pompous prig — you fear the film might fly into the rough.

That it doesn’t is down to Roberts’ affection for his characters and the performances he gets from his central twosome. Sally Hawkins could play Flitcroft’s wife Jean in her sleep, but she invests the oft-used long-suffering spouse trope with warmth and empathy. Rylance is a funny, likeable dreamer, but suggests other notes too — at the point where Maurice is sitting in his car at his lowest ebb, he gives The Phantom Of The Open soul.

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The Phantom of the Open movie review: when Mark Rylance is on screen everyone’s a winner

O God, not another lovable British loser ! That’s what every vaguely cynical film-goer will think upon hearing the synopsis of this comedy about record-breaking golfer Maurice Flitcroft ( Mark Rylance ).

Flitcroft became news in 1976, when he played in the Open Championship and, during the qualifying competition, scored 121 (for those unfamiliar with golf, high scores are bad). Craig Roberts’ film explains how Maurice got to the tournament and what he did next. It’s gorgeously acted and the slapstick made me cry with laughter.

It’s 1975. Flitcroft, from Barrow-in-Furness, is 46 years old and living with his wife, Jean (Sally Hawkins) and their sons. He is also facing redundancy, after years of working as a shipyard crane-operator. By chance, while watching TV, he catches the end of the British Open, witnessing the triumph of Tom Watson.

Flitcroft wants to join the club. I mean he literally just wants to join his local golf club. But because he’s working class, and no spring chicken, he’s treated like a joke. Our hero is smart enough to know when he’s being shat on and, rather than go home, decides to aim bigger. His innocence/ignorance allows him to exploit a loophole in the admissions process for the British Open. And – whoosh! - there he is, doing his humble strut on the world stage, smiling anxiously as his official credentials are announced (remember, he has no credentials). When it’s time for him to take his first shot, he does so with his eyes shut.

Rylance digs deep to make this character thrillingly unpredictable. Like Meryl Streep, who a few years ago played the enthusiastic but dire singer Florence Foster Jenkins, Rylance finds dignity in the most delusional of statements.

Just as importantly, Simon Farnaby’s script is brilliant at muddying the waters of Flitcroft’s naiveté. Whether accidentally or on purpose, Maurice keeps scoring points against his adversaries. In the film’s second funniest segment, he takes part in another British Open, pretending to be a Frenchman, “Gerald Hoppy” (the name of Flitcroft’s obnoxious boss at the shipyard is Gerard Hopkins). Through golfing, Maurice is able to play the part of a powerful man. He’s an actor, in other words, and he’s perfectly capable of writing his own subversive scripts.

Cast and crew over-do the schmaltz towards the end. And, when we see the real Flitcroft, in archive footage, it’s clear how much sugar has been added to this (metaphorical) cup of tea. Still, I swallowed it. Rylance’s Maurice is truly adorable. When he’s in the frame, everyone’s a winner.

102mins, cert 12A

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The Phantom of the Open Review: Mark Rylance Astounds in a Fantastic Film

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In the 1976 British Open, Maurice Flitcroft, a crane operator turned aspiring golfer, shot the worst qualifying round in the tournament's history. He would then be dubbed "the worst golfer in the world" as he gained global fame for continually crashing the prestigious event. Based on the biography from Simon Farnaby, The Phantom of the Open tells the hilarious and truly heartwarming story of a kind man brimming with optimism. He's portrayed with a casual brilliance by the consummate thespian, Mark Rylance . Flitcroft refused to be defined by harsh criticism, mockery, and the scorn of an elitist golf culture. His irrepressible attitude, always supported by his doting wife Jean (Sally Hawkins), will leave you grinning from ear to ear.

We first meet Maurice Flitcroft (Rylance) sitting for a television interview. He humorously recalls growing up during World War II when dreams of fancy were put on hold. His love for theater and music deemed not practical in difficult times. Maurice would end up operating a crane at the dreary Vickers-Armstrongs shipyard. He takes a liking to a sweet company secretary. Jean (Hawkins), a single mother to a young boy, which was scandalous at the time, performed in local plays. A smitten Maurice proposes marriage. He promises to take care of her and little Michael.

Years later in the early seventies , the Vickers-Armstrongs company decides to cut its work force. Maurice and Jean have twin teenage disco-dancing sons, Gene (Christian Lees) and James (Jonah Lees), along with Michael (Jake Davies) who studied hard, went to college, and became a manager in the shipyard's office. Michael informs his father that the crane crew will be trimmed. Jean encourages Maurice to find a passion for himself. He had been true to his word. Maurice worked diligently to provide a stable life for her and the children. A new television set with a remote control changes his fate. Maurice is mesmerized watching an unfamiliar sport. He decides to become a professional golfer.

Knockdown Funny Golf Comedy

Maurice's efforts to learn golf are knockdown funny. Director Craig Roberts (Just Jim, Eternal Beauty), also a successful character actor, takes the time to establish Maurice's golf ineptitude. He's absolutely terrible but enjoys playing the game. Maurice's awful treatment from the local golf clubs is disheartening. He perseveres in practice until a clerical error results in an astounding development. Maurice gets invited to play in the British Open. He quickly arouses the ire of tournament officials but becomes a hero to the common man.

Related: Exclusive: Mark Rylance Reflects on Acting, Choices, and The Phantom of the Open

The Phantom of the Open rests on the mighty shoulders of Rylance. The titan of theater, film, and television gives Maurice a tough backbone with a caring soul. Maurice didn't like bullies. He believed that an individual should pursue happiness when possible. He was a dreamer to the core. His fantastical character traits lead to a conflict with Michael. He's embarrassed by his father's antics. The film's best dramatic moments have a reckoning between them.

Sally Hawkins' Performance

Sally Hawkins amazes as the ultimate partner in life. Jean's love for Maurice was transcendent. The Phantom of the Open recounts their stalwart marriage with a tender touch. Jean was proud of Maurice's character. The second act documents their financial hardships. She stands by him through thick and thin . Jean refuses to let anyone, including their children, belittle Maurice or his dream of being a golfer. Rylance and Hawkins are magnificent. His tribute to her in the third act left me in tears.

The Phantom of the Open resounds on many levels. It's a spirited account of fortitude, family, love, and of course, golf. The film captures the whimsical nature of Maurice Flitcroft. Its imaginative delivery and superb acting are an absolute joy to behold. The Phantom of the Open is a gem that deserves to be seen.

The Phantom of the Open is a production of Ingenious, Water & Power, Baby Cow Films, BBC Film, Cornerstone Films, and BFI. It will be released theatrically in the United States on June 3rd from Sony Pictures Classics.

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The phantom of the open.

• Common Sense Says
• Parents Say 1 Review
• Kids Say 1 Review

Common Sense Media Review

Feel-good golf biopic dramedy has smoking, strong language.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that The Phantom of the Open is an uplifting British dramedy based on a true story. It has plenty of positive messages along with some salty language and smoking. Starring Mark Rylance as Maurice Flitcroft -- dubbed "the world's worst golfer" after he tricked his way into playing at the…

Why Age 13+?

A couple uses of "f---ing." Also "whore," "bastard," "blimey," "shut it," "s--t,

Characters -- including the main character -- are regularly seen smoking, includ

While the central character dreams of fame, he also says that there's "more to l

Reference to dying on the job -- a coffin is seen being carried. Black and white

Affection between a married couple includes kissing and embracing. When two char

Any Positive Content?

Always try your best. Chase your dreams no matter how unattainable they may seem

Maurice Flitcroft is a dreamer who decides to become a professional golfer, desp

Based on a true story, the central characters are British White working class. T

A couple uses of "f---ing." Also "whore," "bastard," "blimey," "shut it," "s--t," "flipping heck," "bloody hell," "tossers," "snobs," "hell," "plonker," "frigging," "burke," and "taking the piss." "Good Lord," "good God," "Jesus," and "Jesus Christ" are used as exclamations. Character mistakenly says "testicles" in Spanish.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Characters -- including the main character -- are regularly seen smoking, including in the workplace. A golfer is shown smoking a pipe. Drinking in the pub, at home, at social gatherings, and at work. One character gets out of their car and appears to be slightly drunk.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Products & Purchases

While the central character dreams of fame, he also says that there's "more to life than money." But he does get to experience the high life, flying first class, driving in a limousine, and enjoying champagne, caviar, and diamonds. He also sells his story to the newspaper in order to get money to join a golf club. Mention of Guinness.

Violence & Scariness

Reference to dying on the job -- a coffin is seen being carried. Black and white footage of World War II shows bombs being dropped. Two incidents of people being accidentally hit with golf clubs and golf balls. In a dreamlike sequence, a character jumps for the stars and a golf ball in the sky -- they fall to the ground, but come to no harm.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Affection between a married couple includes kissing and embracing. When two characters are asked why they like dancing, they respond with "to impress birds."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Positive Messages

Always try your best. Chase your dreams no matter how unattainable they may seem. Practice is the route to perfection. Mistakes are a chance to learn. There is more to life than money.

Positive Role Models

Maurice Flitcroft is a dreamer who decides to become a professional golfer, despite never having played the game. He does bend the rules, such as lying on an application form and breaking into a golf club at night to practice. However, his positive approach to life is contagious and he shows great perseverance in trying to achieve his goals. He is also a loving father and husband, though his fatherly advice is occasionally questioned. He is supported by his wife, Jean, and twin sons, Gene and James. His stepson, Michael, initially puts his status at work above his family. Some supporting characters behave snobbish toward Maurice and make fun of his lofty ambitions.

Diverse Representations

Based on a true story, the central characters are British White working class. Their family set-up includes a stepson who is treated just the same as his twin brothers. Some diversity in terms of race and ethnicity among the supporting cast. An English actor makes a brief appearance playing a French golfer.

Did we miss something on diversity? Suggest an update.

Parents need to know that The Phantom of the Open is an uplifting British dramedy based on a true story. It has plenty of positive messages along with some salty language and smoking. Starring Mark Rylance as Maurice Flitcroft -- dubbed "the world's worst golfer" after he tricked his way into playing at the 1976 British Open -- the movie celebrates the idea of never giving up on your dreams. Flitcroft is an opportunist with grand ideas. But his approach to life is inspirational, and he has plenty of wise words along the way, such as "practice is the route to perfection" and "mistakes are a chance to learn." Flitcroft's family are, on the whole, supportive of his endeavors, especially wife Jean ( Sally Hawkins ). But he does come into conflict with his eldest son. Flitcroft and others smoke regularly, and there's some drinking. While it's not frequently to excess, in one scene a character appears to have driven home while under the influence. Strong language includes some use of "f---ing" and "s--t." But these points aside, this is a heartwarming film for teens and up. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

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Parent and Kid Reviews

• Parents say (1)
• Kids say (1)

Based on 1 parent review

This film is good, but...

What's the story.

THE PHANTOM OF THE OPEN tells the true story of Maurice Flitcroft ( Mark Rylance ), a man who dreamed of fame and fortune. After stumbling across a golf tournament on his TV, he decided to become a professional golfer -- despite never having played the game -- and entered the 1976 British Open golf championship.

Is It Any Good?

With its stranger-than-fiction plot, this British comedy oozes a feel-good factor that will leave audiences feeling warm in its glow. Directed by Craig Roberts , The Phantom of the Open is a classic underdog story. The fact that it's true only makes it all the more remarkable and will have you reaching for the internet to find out if it really did happen. We'll save you some clicks ... it did. Maurice Flitcroft's appearance at the 1976 British Open has gone down in golfing history and earned the shipyard crane operator the nickname, "the world's worst golfer" -- a moniker the man himself objected to. As you might expect, a story as bizarre as this has plenty of laughs. However, it's also a tale about chasing your dreams, no matter how far-fetched they might be.

It would be easy for Flitcroft to be a figure of fun. But his delusions of grandeur are never played for cheap laughs, which is a credit to both the writing, directing, and Rylance's excellent performance. Rylance takes center stage, but he is matched by an equally noteworthy Sally Hawkins , who plays Flitcroft's wife, Jean. Meanwhile Rhys Ifans has fun playing the stuffy organizer of the golfing tournament and Flitcroft's adversary. As for Roberts, having made a name of himself in front of the camera in the likes of the sweet Submarine , he is proving himself to be a young director more than capable of handling a feature-length film with an A-star cast. Even if golf is not your thing, this is a heartwarming, inspirational film that is well worth taking a swing at.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about the character of Maurice Flitcroft in The Phantom of the Open . Would you describe him as a positive role model ? Why, or why not? What character strengths did he display? Can you think of a time in your own life when you've shown these traits?

Talk about some of the language used. Did it seem necessary or excessive? What did it contribute to the movie?

A number of characters are shown smoking in the film. What are the dangers of smoking? How have attitudes to smoking changed since when the movie was set?

The movie is based on a true story. What other films have you seen that were about real events?

Movie Details

• In theaters : June 3, 2022
• On DVD or streaming : July 8, 2022
• Cast : Mark Rylance , Sally Hawkins , Rhys Ifans
• Director : Craig Roberts
• Inclusion Information : Female actors
• Studio : Sony Pictures Classics
• Genre : Comedy
• Topics : Sports and Martial Arts
• Character Strengths : Curiosity , Perseverance
• Run time : 106 minutes
• MPAA rating : PG-13
• MPAA explanation : some strong language and smoking
• Award : Common Sense Selection
• Last updated : October 2, 2023

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

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The Phantom of the Open Reviews

The Phantom of the Open works best as a showcase for its talented cast, proving the versatility of Mark Rylance and Sally Hawkins in particular. This is a constantly fun watch with a real sense of heart and meaning.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5 | Jul 19, 2023

This wholesome hope is contagious: Roberts makes it impossible to resist thinking of the world as a land of Gumps and Flitcrofts, of indomitable dreamers. What a lovely thought that is.

Full Review | Apr 25, 2023

A delightful and thoroughly enjoyable golf Cinderella story. The ever-so-versatile Mark Rylance's portrayal of Maurice is instantly likable, it was effortless to be fully invested in his journey.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Feb 26, 2023

It’s a vein from British social lore of a blue-collar man sticking it to the hierarchy with a brazen charm of happy-go-lucky attitudes towards life.

Full Review | Original Score: A- | Feb 22, 2023

Agglutinates a certain social nuance with a human touch, extravagant as it is delicate, with stupendous performances. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Jan 6, 2023

True story of a golfer who crashes the British Open and teaches us all about the way of failure.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 11, 2022

Director Craig Roberts treats Flitcroft with utmost respect, even if those around him do not. The brilliant Mark Rylance anchors this film that’s populated with eccentric characters, and the ensemble is integral to winning us over.

Full Review | Original Score: B+ | Aug 22, 2022

The Phantom of the Open won’t break the mold of a crowd pleaser but it is delightfully par for the course.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Jul 27, 2022

A hilarious, sweet comedy with a lot of heart and indulgence for one of life's true eccentrics played with brio by the very versatile Mark Rylance, among engaging support performances and a taste for the brash aesthetics of 70s TV

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Jul 26, 2022

Despite the lucid storytelling, the chronicle was ordinarily transferred to the screen by Roberts, whose big ladle of easy sweets and tough dreams went too sentimental in places.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5 | Jul 23, 2022

An endearing true story about a lovable oddball.

Full Review | Original Score: 4 stars | Jul 23, 2022

How can you not love Mark Rylance, who always manages to find roles tailor-made for his strengths. He's such a treat here and you can't help but to fall under his spell, regardless of how silly or sappy things may get.

Full Review | Original Score: 87/100 | Jul 22, 2022

Significant alterations to the story create faux-drama which makes you realise it’s a very, very loose adaptation of the Maurice Flitcroft tale. I wish it was more authentic.

Full Review | Original Score: B- | Jul 21, 2022

A narrative like this always going to draw people in, as gumption-fuelled against-the-odds tales tend to, but it wouldn't keep them cheering along without Rylance's both believable and endearing stint in the argyle vest.

Full Review | Jul 17, 2022

It’s all so shallow and flash-in-the-pan as to suggest there wasn’t that much to Flitcroft’s achievements or, in Rylance’s one-note portrayal, the man himself, in the first place.

Full Review | Original Score: 1.5 | Jul 15, 2022

This too could be hilarious, if we weren’t being invited to accept the character at face value as the salt of the earth. As things stand, he’s fascinating but not entirely human -- at least, not as human as Paddington Bear.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5 | Jul 14, 2022

The Phantom of the Open returns a solid scorecard.

Full Review | Jul 14, 2022

Rylance connects to the contradictions in Maurice's childlike mind, to his dreamy optimism and his neglect of responsibility — elements that the film hints at but can't quite reconcile, because it's too enamoured with its warm-blanket world view.

A feel-good flick for the whole family, one that features a terrific soundtrack of ‘70s and ‘80s hits, some brilliantly executed set-pieces and one-liners and a fabulous supporting cast that also includes Rhys Ifans, Ian Porter and Mark Lewis Jones.

Full Review | Original Score: 4.5/5 | Jul 13, 2022

A worthy companion piece to Eddie the Eagle...Warm, uplifting and grounded by sensible messaging about being aware of your limitations while pursuing your dreams, The Phantom of the Open is set to be one of the most fulfilling feel-good films of the year.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Jul 13, 2022

PHANTOM OF THE OPEN – Review

In the charming true-story comedy PHANTOM OF THE OPEN, Mark Rylance plays the worst golfer in British Open history, Maurice Flitcroft, a middle-aged working class bloke who accidentally got into the storied competition, and then became a folk hero for trying to do it again and again, haunting the tournament. Mark Rylance (BRIDGE OF SPIES) and Sally Hawkins (THE SHAPE OF WATER), as Flitcroft’s supportive wife Jean, are both absolute charmers in this very funny yet uplifting British comedy about a very British eccentric who believed anything was possible. Although Flitcroft’s performance in the British Open earned him the moniker “worst golfer in the world,” it actually was the first round of golf Flitcroft had ever played, having just taken up the sport after being laid off from his job as a crane operator, another amazing aspect of this unlikely true story.

No need for an interest in golf to be tickled by this hilarious yet warm stranger-than-fiction tale, but it does help if you are charmed by British eccentrics like the irrepressible Flitcroft. PHANTOM OF THE OPEN features a pair of outstanding British actors who bring the quirky personalities in this unlikely true story to life. Like THE DUKE, another true-story tale about an eccentric Brit that stars a pair of great British actors, Jim Broadbent and Helen Mirren, much of PHANTOM OF THE OPEN’s success rests those great actors leading it. Rylance and Hawkins are indeed marvelous in this appealing comedy, with Mark Rylance’s sweet, unassuming but determined Maurice Flitcroft and Sally Hawkins’ equally optimistic, supportive wife Jean making a very winning pair. The hilarious film succeeds comedically but the story is as inspiring and warm as it is funny, an uplifting, heart-warming story, about the Little Man battling class bias and daring to chase his impossible dreams, no matter the odds.

Underdog comedies like this tend to follow some familiar paths but director Craig Roberts interjects freshness and fun, as well as visual delight, with several comical, charming dream-like fantasy sequences, daydreams where the moon in the night sky becomes a giant golf ball or a smiling Flitcroft is propelled into space by a giant golf club. The fantasy flights are sprinkled throughout the film, adding spikes of color (besides Flitcroft’s comically loud golf attire) and a little magic.

Before playing in the British Open, Flitcroft (Rylance) had only ever practiced his golf strokes on the beach and in makeshift set-ups. Maurice Flitcroft had grown up in a working class family in northern England where everyone was expected to go to work in the mines. Being a pro golfer was not something working class boys aspired to do. But WWII sent the boy off to a country estate, like so many other city children, for his safety from wartime bombings. There the young Maurice was asked a question no one had ever asked him before: what do you want to be when you grow up? The question changed the way Flitcroft saw the world, making him someone who believed in dreaming big, no matter who you are.

Life and love intervened, when he fell for Jean (Sally Hawkins), a secretary and part-time theater director. The likable, easy-going Flitcroft’s dreams now shifted to encouraging his stepson and his twin boys to dream big, while he took work in the mining industry, becoming a crane operator. The twins, Gene (Christian Lees) and James (Jonah Lees), take an unconventional path but grown stepson Michael (Jake Davies) finds success in the business side of mining. When the middle-aged Maurice is laid off from his job, his wife encourages him to finally follow his own dreams. A chance viewing of the British Open on TV sparks the idea that he could become a pro golfer – even though he’s never played the game.

There is something too crazy to be true in this idea but the fact that there really was a Maurice Flitcroft is part of why this film is both so funny and so appealing. Maurice’s practice sessions encourage his belief in himself but he needs access to a golf course. Turned down for membership in the local country club, the plucky Brit enters the 1976 British Open, partly as a way to access a golf course. He doesn’t quite get the significance of his decision.

That Flitcroft gets in is both a mistake and a fluke. Rhys Ifans plays a British Open official, Keith Mackenzie, who is appalled by Flitcrof’ts appallingly-bad performance on the links, becomes determined to keep him out of future tournaments. At home, his stepson James is appalled and embarrassed by his dad’s sudden “fame,” while the rest of the family can’t see a problem.

A kind of cat-and-mouse face-off develops between Rhys Ifans’ gatekeeper official Mackenzie and Rylance’s unstoppable Flitcroft, who tries various ways to sneak back into the British Open, often with the aid of a pal with a shady past. It makes for laugh-out-loud comedy, and director Roberts and the cast make the most of that in some classic-comedy bits. But the director’s imaginative fantasy sequences add a contemporary feel and a touch of magic and magical realism.

Mark Rylance plays this odd character with considerable sweetness and appeal, a man whose determination just can’t be undermined by the facts. Themes about class and snobbery in golf run through this film, as well as a Don Quixote thread, both of which the director and cast handle with a perfect touch which brings out both the humor and a spirit of human hopefulness. In Flitcroft’s world, dreams conquer all, as he repeats little inspirational mantras to himself. His limitless optimism sparks some loopy, creative stunts and wins him admiration from others, particularly amateur golfers.

A complete charmer, PHANTOM OF THE OPEN is light and lively fun, with wonderful warm performances by the marvelous Mark Rylance and Sally Hawkins, and filled with both hilarious moments and warm uplift as well as delightful, colorful flights of visual fantasy.

PHANTOM OF THE OPEN opens June 17 in theaters.

RATING: 4 out of 4 stars

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• Out Come The Wolves (2024)

‘Out Come The Wolves’ Review: A Gnarly Survival Thriller On The Consequences Of Befriending Men

Survival thrillers are awesome. Be it the dark forests or the open seas, humans are the most vulnerable creatures out there, and it’s always thrilling to see them come to terms with the fact that they’re not exactly at the top of the food chain. The on-screen portrayal of this eternal battle between man and the wild has changed over the years. The birds that we see on the screen in The Birds were achieved via real birds, mechanical birds, and a ton of visual effects and special effects. Jaws used a mixture of stock footage and a shifty mechanical shark to inspire terror. Bart the Bear achieved iconic status with his appearance in The Edge . And with advancements in visual effects and CGI, we got realistic-looking predators in films like Snakes on a Plane , The Grey , The Revenant , The Shallows , Crawl , and Beast (the one with Idris Elba in it). But Out Come the Wolves has joined this amazing list by hiring a bunch of very real and very professional wolves.

Adam MacDonald’s Out Come the Wolves , which he has co-written with Enuka Okuma and Joris Jarsky, opens with an ominous shot of a guy dragging himself through the forest and passing out. The narrative then turns back the clock a few hours as Kyle arrives at a cabin in the woods to reunite with his childhood friend, Sophie, and her fiancé, Nolan. Apparently, Nolan wants to write an article on hunting and surviving in the wild, and, despite having a significant amount of expertise in this topic, Sophie assigns Kyle to give Nolan some first-hand experience. It’s quite evident that this is Sophie’s way of getting Kyle and Nolan to know each other because they are two of the most important men in her life. Kyle is a little weirded out by this arrangement, but he agrees to oblige Sophie by training Nolan. Initially, it seems like Nolan is okay with this situation as well, but as he starts to point out the absence of Kyle’s girlfriend, who was supposed to show up for this get-together, and brings up Sophie’s past with Kyle, the atmosphere gets awkward. And the simmering tension comes to a boil after the two men finally head into the forest for some good old hunting.

The writing for the opening act of Out Come the Wolves is truly spectacular. It has the adequate amount of exposition to explain the history of the characters and how they are connected to each other. It oscillates perfectly between casual banter and uncomfortable observations, and it beautifully sets the stage for the inevitable conflict between Sophie, Nolan, and Kyle. The second act is obviously about the clash of two different brands of male ego, and the way the writers explore the fragilities and insecurities of these men, that they try to mask with what can only be defined as performative masculinity, is spectacular. But it’s the third act that fascinates and confounds me. You see, on the one hand, the writers brilliantly portray how cis-gendered, straight women are tragically stuck between men who are explicitly evil and men who are subtly evil. These men come in various forms—father, brother, friend, boyfriend, coworker, or stranger—but they always fall into these two categories. And since men refuse to change and subvert these stereotypes, women have to look beyond this binary choice to live peacefully. However, on the other hand, during the concluding moments of the film, it seems like the writers are saying that natural selection is going to help women out, which is too simple and, hence, too confusing for my overstimulated mind.

The visual storytelling and the sound design scratched an itch in my brain whose existence I was unaware of until I saw the film. With the help of cinematographer Christian Bielz, editor Pamela Bayne, composer Lee Malia, production designer Brian Garvey, costume designer Judith Ann Clancy, the makeup department, the sound department, VFX artists, stunt experts, and of course, the wolf handlers, Adam MacDonald crafts a visual experience that’s primal, gritty, and incredibly tense. The various ways in which the movement of the vehicles through the forest is captured is so simple and yet so innovative. Sometimes you feel like an animal stalking these characters, and sometimes you feel like a sentient entity trying to keep up with them as they hurtle through the woods. Talking about the animals in question, those wolves deserve awards for injecting the fear of God into the characters and me. There are quite a few moments in the film that made me scream because of how quickly the wolves lunged at the characters. The movie is full of asymmetrical shots to hint at the headspace of a character. There are quite a few match cuts, which are pretty good. And all the stunts are impactful. The budget limitations are visible, but the hits that the characters take made me wince, and that’s a win for MacDonald and his team.

Out Come the Wolves has a small cast, but all three of the (human) actors absolutely knock it out of the park. Damon Runyan makes Nolan so easy to hate. He accurately portrays the misplaced sense of pride that Nolan has for being an editor-in-chief. You can totally feel how stupid Nolan is for being insecure about his fiance just from the smarmy way in which Runyan delivers his dialogue. His nervous breakdown is hilarious enough to be satisfying, but that’s also when he hits you with an unexpected sense of self-awareness and empathy, thereby confusing you (in a good way) about whether or not he deserves to be hated. Joris Jarsky has the exact opposite task. He is meant to be likable from the get-go. That’s why Jarsky feels warm and inviting, as he seems to be comfortable with any topic that’s thrown his way. He looks like the elder brother or best friend you didn’t have in your life. But as soon as Sophie is out of the picture, who can see Jarsky giving you a peek into the direction in which Kyle’s gears are turning, thereby making you wonder if you should’ve liked him in the first place. Missy Peregrym spends the first two acts trying to deal with the polar opposite energies being exuded by Runyan and Jarsky. But the way she absolutely explodes during the final act of the film is truly a sight to witness.

I walked into Out Come the Wolves without even reading the logline of the film, and, having watched the whole thing, I can say that I am thoroughly impressed. As mentioned earlier, the cast is great. The stunts and the use of this elemental setting are mind-blowing. The commentary on how relationships between men and women continuously erode only because men refuse to behave like sensible human beings is way too relevant. In addition to all that, it has real wolves. This isn’t a dig at VFX and CGI artists at all, because I know they’re capable of conjuring the most realistic-looking beasts. But the use of real wolves just made me constantly wonder how MacDonald and his team must’ve pulled off those scenes. By the way, I am glad that I didn’t even check out the name of the director because I am a fan of MacDonald’s previous film, Pyewacket , and if I knew he was at the helm of this one, maybe I would’ve watched his latest directorial venture with a certain set of expectations. And now, I’m glad that he has returned to the realm of feature film direction with a bang. So, consider this review as my recommendation for both Pyewacket and Out Come the Wolves .

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The Phantom of the Open

Britisk komediedrama fra 2021. Den midaldrende værftsarbejder Maurice Flitcroft melder sig til den prestigefulde golfturnering British Open - selv om han knapt nok har slået til en golfbold før. Med en urokkelig tro på sig selv kaster Maurice sig ud et forsøg på at spille golf på professionelt topplan. Maurices håbløse bestræbelser vækker stor frustration hos golfeliten, men gør ham til en britisk folkehelt. Medvirkende: Mark Rylance, Sally Hawkins, Rhys Ifans m.fl. Instruktion: Craig Roberts. Udløber: 12. nov 2024

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Beetlejuice Beetlejuice Would’ve Been Better Off Dead

The first Beetlejuice film, released in 1988, is ornate and simple all at once. Tim Burton ’s visual world is busy and hectic, a riot of sideways whimsy and cartoonish gore that, along with 1990’s Edward Scissorhands , defined the director’s house style early in his career. But the story contained within all that oddball architecture is not so complex. It’s mostly about two people realizing they’ve died and learning how to be ghosts. It’s a discovery movie, a satisfying explication of the afterlife’s best and worst practices.

Which makes Beetlejuice a tough candidate for sequelization. How do you compellingly teach an audience what it’s already learned and still fondly remembers? Perhaps that’s why it took Burton and crew 35 years to come up with a follow-up. And yet, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice suggests that nearly four decades wasn’t quite long enough.

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice , which premiered here at the Venice Film Festival on Wednesday, is a rats nest of callbacks and plot, so jumbled and overstuffed it’s almost abstract. It’s yet another legacy sequel that serves as sad testament to the original film’s ingenuity.

When Beetlejuice Beetlejuice isn’t desperately echoing what worked in the original, it is manically introducing new characters and premises. Roughly speaking, the film is about grownup Lydia Deetz ( Winona Ryder ) trying to reconcile with her estranged daughter, Astrid ( Jenna Ortega ). Lydia, a widow, has leveraged her ability to commune with the dead to become the host of a popular ghost-hunting TV series, a job that doesn’t really track with the jaded, sullen loner we met in 1988. But, people change, and so Lydia is now a pushover sellout whose daughter thinks she’s a fraud. It’s a depressing reentry to the franchise, a glum assertion that adulthood will flatten and compromise personality.

Mother and child are pulled this way and that by the many narrative strings of the film—which, depending on the minute, concerns a death in the family, an upcoming wedding, a case of puppy love, and the angry, soul-sucking (quite literally) ex-wife of the titular ghoul. Burton keeps our heads swiveling at breakneck speed, erratically jumping between storylines that never really converge. At one point in the film, Astrid asks her mother what happened to the ghosts Lydia knew as a teenager: the ones played so winsomely by Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis. Lydia hurriedly says that they found a loophole and moved on to the next plane, and Astrid just about turns to the camera to say, “How convenient.”

Which indicates that the film is aware that cheap narrative fixes are a pain, but stridently employs them anyway. Problems are solved with snaps of fingers or sudden digressions from interior logic. Monica Bellucci ’s Delores, the murderous one-time wife of Beetlejuice ( Michael Keaton , of course), is supposedly even more wicked than Mr. Juice, and is introduced in the film as an impending storm—what will she do when she finally gets her revenge? Then she stalks around the edges of the movie until Burton abruptly decides he’s done with her. Ditto for Astrid’s romantic interlude, a plot loaded with potential that is hastily sketched out and resolved.

Keaton, for his part, still remembers how to play the title character, though I wish someone had done some punch-up on his asides and one-liners. Ryder is stymied by Lydia’s newfound meekness, while Ortega is stuck playing a less dynamic moody teen than the one she plays on Wednesday (also produced by Burton) . Willem Dafoe barely registers as a dead TV cop who works as a real investigator in the afterlife (or something), while the great Catherine O’Hara , as Lydia’s blithe artist stepmother, Delia, struggles to make anything distinct out of this perfunctory revisit.

With its limp humor, canned sentiment, and over-egged efforts to gross us out, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is a waste of a good cast and a defacement of a classic film’s legacy. Most galling of all, it was summoned willingly by people who should know better than to mess with what’s long been peacefully laid to rest.

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Close To You

Elliot Page makes a compelling lead in this sensitive trans homecoming story

Time Out says

The prodigal son returns in this quietly-told drama from director Dominic Savage and star Elliot Page. As with Savage’s TV series, I Am , director and star conceived the story and then the cast largely improvised the dialogue that drives it along. Sometimes that results in meandering or overblown moments, but the general thrust is powerful enough to carry it along. Page plays Sam, a trans man living in Toronto who returns to his family home for a visit for the first time in four years. He makes the journey with considerable trepidation: while his family are outwardly supportive of his transition, he fears that their feelings are considerably more complicated (and time will prove him right on that). Worse, the return opens up his own memories of unhappiness and alienation, even when he reconnects with his first love Katherine (Hillary Baack): she is now married with children, and wary of allowing the surviving spark between them to grow.

Savage and Page explore some of the complexities of transition through the family members. Sam isn’t a saint – he can be surly and defensive even before he has good cause to lash out. Equally, some of the family show open hostility to his identity and disrespect to his life. There is an enormous love for him, but hesitance too, a wariness that makes him visibly uncomfortable. His time with Katherine is more encouraging: while Sam repeatedly says he’s not looking for a relationship, his almost magnetic attraction to her suggests otherwise. 

Sometimes you wish for a little more shape to the baggier scenes

Savage directs with a light hand, and sometimes you wish for a little more shape to the baggier scenes. In a few moments, the tension pinballs from high to low and back again without much purpose. The improvised dialogue isn’t generally bad – there’s obviously a naturalism to it and authenticity in the overlapping voices and conflicting priorities – but again, for a film with such a clear message you wish that the scenes had been a little more carefully crafted. Only Page, who has lived and written a book on his own experience of transition, communicates a fully developed, fully formed point of view, rather than vaguely well-meaning clumsiness.

Set under grey skies and shot in desaturated colours that seem to reflect Sam’s ambivalence about his visit, this is not a cheery film. But there’s hope here, and a reminder that found families can go a long way to make up for the shortcomings of kin – and that blood relations may still have love to give, however imperfectly they offer it. 

In US theaters Fri Aug 23 and UK cinemas Aug 30.

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• Director: Dominic Savage
• Screenwriter: Dominic Savage
• Elliot Page

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