REACH FOR THE STARS (THE PHANTOM OF THE OPEN)
Mark Rylance is not someone you would associate with light comedy.
Yet here he is acing every gag in Craig Roberts' delightful underdog comedy 'The Phantom of the Open'.
Based on a true story, Rylance plays Maurice Flitcroft, a classic English working class eccentric who shot the worst round, 121 in the history of qualifying for the Open Golf Championship.
At the start of Roberts' film, Flitcroft is being interviewed on US television about his life.
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© BBC Film, BFI & Entertainment OneA crane operator from Barrow-in-Furness, we learn he came from humble stock and was evacuated to Scotland during the Second World War where he stayed with a very kind surrogate family.
It was they who instilled in him the belief he could excel at anything he set his mind to.
Young Maurice, played by Tommy Fallon, was, we are told, terrible at the violin.
Although his older self still insists in the narrative that he was pretty good.
© BBC Film, BFI & Entertainment OneHe also dabbled in painting before being sent home.
Maurice tells us he also had a flair for languages.
On leaving school, Maurice landed a job in the shipyard in Barrow-in-Furness and fell for Sally Hawkins' drama enthusiast Jean, a single mother.
In his proposal to her, Maurice vows to take Jean abroad and promises to give her a life of champagne, caviar and diamonds.
© BBC Film, BFI & Entertainment OneIn addition to raising her son Austin Griffin's Michael as his own, the couple have twins who are obsessed with disco dancing.
In his twenties, Jake Davies' older version of Michael becomes a trainee manager in the shipyard, while Christian and Jonah Lees' Gene and James Flitcroft set their hearts on becoming disco dancing champions.
With the shipyard about to be taken over, Michael confides in Maurice that there may be redundancies and suggests he should think about a life away from the shipyard.
Maurice imparts this advice to his two best friends, Johann Myers' Willie and Mark Lewis Jones' Cliff, encouraging them to be prepared to pursue their own passions in life.
© BBC Film, BFI & Entertainment OneWillie says his passion is Guinness, so Maurice suggests he should open an Irish pub.
Rather naively, Maurice also recalls Cliff has always talked enthusiastically about a bank job, so he encourages him to become a clerk.
As he looks to carve out a new career, Maurice finds his calling one night after the family purchases a television.
Accidentally stumbling on televised coverage of Tom Watson winning the 1975 Open Golf Championship, he is inspired to take up the sport.
© BBC Film, BFI & Entertainment OneCliff acquires him golf gear - okay, he steals it - and Maurice purchases his clubs.
Taking to heart his surrogate family's maxim that "practice is the road to perfection," he sets off to the local beach and then the local golf course to learn the rudiments of the game.
With his heart set on playing in the 1976 Open, Maurice is so clueless he goes to the job centre to see if they can help him become a professional golfer.
"Bartender, beautician, buses.. sorry, there's nothing here about the British Open," he is rather disappointingly told.
© BBC Film, BFI & Entertainment OneSo he writes instead to a BBC commentator on how he can enter the tournament and taking his advice, formally applies as a professional to appear in qualifying.
Not knowing what a handicap is in golf, Jean and Maurice put on his application he has false teeth and lumbago.
Rather amazingly, the application is accepted and he heads off for qualifying with Gene and James alternating as caddies.
It turns out, though, that practice is not the road to perfection and he shoots a 61.. on the front nine, taking another 60 shots to get round the rest.
© BBC Film, BFI & Entertainment OneReporters covering qualifying become fascinated with the no hoper story developing on the course.
This brings him, however, to the attention of Rhys Ifans' Royal and Ancient secretary Keith Mackenzie and his colleague, Tim Steed's John Pegg who are embarrassed that Maurice has somehow slipped through the net.
After failing to persuade him to abandon his round, Mackenzie and Pegg are determined to ensure Maurice never makes it to an Open Championship qualifier again.
While they ban him from setting foot on other golf courses including his local club, Maurice still pursues his dream.
© BBC Film, BFI & Entertainment OneSo he sets about fulfilling it, entering the tournament again as a bogus Swiss professional by the name of Gerard Hoppy - the first in a series of pseudonyms the real Flitcroft deployed.
His determination to fulfil his dream embarrasses Michael who is uncomfortable seeing Maurice become a laughing stock among executives at the shipyard.
Michael is also uneasy about how his boss, Nigel Betts' Tony Marsh views his stepfather's behaviour.
But will Maurice's obsession destroy his relationship with Michael for good?
© BBC Film, BFI & Entertainment OneRoberts and his screenwriter Simon Farnaby of 'Horrible Histories' fame have concocted a very charming, curiously old fashioned tale about an unflappable dreamer.
Cut from the same cloth as another tale earlier this year about a working class eccentric, Roger Michell's 'The Duke', 'The Phantom of the Opera' feels like a throwback to the eccentric English comedies of the late 1940s, 50s and 60s.
It's like those British Lion comedy pictures starring Peter Sellers, Alec Guinness, Tom Courtenay, Richard Attenborough, Terry Thomas and Ian Charmichael.
Like Tom Courtenay's William Fisher in John Schlesinger's 'Billy Liar,' Maurice is a working class dreamer who simply seeks a better life.
© BBC Film, BFI & Entertainment OneLike Robert Hamer's 'Kind Hearts and Coronets,' the film also mercilessly sends up class snobbery in Britain - this time among the blazer wearing golf set.
There's more than a hint of Alec Guinness' physical transformation as Professor Marcus in Alexander Mackendrick's 'The Lady Killers' about Rylance's transformation into Maurice Flitcroft.
In many ways, the film confirms Rylance as the modern day equivalent of Guinness - an actor also of great range who easily got under the skin of characters from a variety of backgrounds in a variety of film roles.
It helps that Farnaby has crafted a really funny script which revels in the naivety of its hero without ever condescending him.
© BBC Film, BFI & Entertainment OneAnd while Roberts direction is unfussy, he elicits perfectly pitched comic performances from his entire cast.
Ifans embraces the chance to play the pompous, stuffy, snobby villain, with Tim Steed doing a good job as his willing accomplice.
Jake Davies is excellent at capturing the conflicting emotions of Michael.
Christian and Jonah Lees are hilarious as Gene and James who have the same sunny optimism and resolute faith as their dad but who actually go on to great things in disco dancing competitions.
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© BBC Film, BFI & Entertainment OneJohann Myers and Mark Lewis Jones amuse as Maurice's shipyard colleagues - the latter generating a lot of laughs as his Maurice's caddy during his second bid for Open qualification under the pseudonym Gerard Hoppy.
Nigel Betts is also suitably pompous as Tony.
Hawkins is as reliable as ever as the kind hearted and supportive Jean.
However the film unquestionably belongs to Rylance who brilliantly fuses old fashioned decency and English eccentricity and hits every gag like a Rory McIlroy approach shot on his best days.
© BBC Film, BFI & Entertainment OneOne sequence tells you all you need to know about why 'The Phantom of the Open' works.
Maurice encounters the future Spanish golf legend, Mark Bosch's Severiano Ballesteros in the locker room before qualifying.
A sweet moment is created of the two of them chatting in Spanish about Maurice's lack of nerves and learning from your mistakes.
Farnaby suddenly brings it brilliantly down to Earth with the crane operator's mangled parting words to the future three time Open champion: "Hasta cajones!" ("After testicles").
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© BBC Film, BFI & Entertainment OneThis comedy parting line is delivered by Rylance with all the precision of a Tiger Woods iron shot and it is typical of a film that knows what its audience wants and how to give it to them.
While Roberts film occasionally strays into magical realism, he mostly delivers a crowd pleaser of a story.
As you finish watching 'The Phantom of the Open,' you'll be tempted to raise a glass and declare: 'Long live the English eccentric'.
May British filmmakers and screenwriters keep telling their tales as well as Roberts and Farnaby.
('The Phantom of the Open' was released in the UK and Ireland on March 18, 2022)
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