Arts and Lifestyle Wednesday Presented by Healing Frequency Massage-Phantom Heartstrings

When you start with two actors of the quality of Mark Rylance and Sally Hawkins, you give yourself a nice edge in likely making a good film. Add in the unlikeliest of true stories and you have the prescription that is “The Phantom of the Open”

Rylance is one of the producers of this sweet new movie, based on the story of Maurice Flitcroft, a 46-year old crane operator in a small English town, who caught the golf bug, and decided that he would shoot for the biggest prize, the British Open, even though he had never played a round of golf. Unable to get club membership due to finances, he began practicing on fields and at the beach in pursuit of the crazy dream.

It’s based on the 2010 book of the same name, written by Scott Murray and Simon Farnaby. Farnaby also wrote the screenplay. He also is the writer of “Paddington 2”, which amazingly was quite good despite what you might think. The film is directed by relative newcomer Craig Roberts who has shown great promise in small films “Just Jim” and “Eternal Beauty”. He does many things well here, getting fine performances, and using period music and authentic 70’s costuming to fine effect.

Flitcroft is portrayed as a kind and gentle man, supported unwaveringly by his wife Jean (Hawkins). Rylance has won an Oscar, and Hawkins has been nominated twice, and they are in top form in this movie. Rylance is understated, caring, and believable in a story that is almost the opposite. Despite his humble profession and surroundings, Flitcroft encourages his three sons to always pursue whatever dreams they might have, however unlikely.

The Flitcroft’s love story is shown in flashback at the outset in the prologue, with an enjoyable and welcoming voiceover by Rylance. He meets his bride to be at the shipyard, is accepting of her son out of wedlock, and they head out on their life’s journey, which then is picked up in the mid-1970’s. Flitcroft watches the 1975 conclusion of The Open on television and is hooked. He decides that with the right kind of dedication (“practice is the road to perfection” is his mantra) he can somehow become a champion.

He also supports his two younger twins sons Gene and James in their dream of becoming disco dance champions. They are played with delightful charm by twins Christian and Jonah Lees, and actually rise to far greater heights than their father does on the links. Maurice starts to do his research and finds out that he will need a handicap if he is to enter The Open, but in what would seem to us now as a very strange loophole, you didn’t need to declare a handicap if you said you were a professional, so that’s what he does on his application.

It’s hard to imagine that this flimsy process would work, but it did, and Flitcroft is approved to play in the qualifier. Not surprisingly, he is terrible from the jump, popping up his initial tee shot, which is comically shot with a crane camera from above, so that at first we might think that this straight tee ball is headed somewhere, which it is….22 yards from the tee box. It gets no better from there, with shanks, duffs, and missed putts aplenty.

The older son Michael (Maurice’s stepson), played by Jake Davies, has taken a more structured path, and is a junior executive at the shipyard where his father works. He is trying to climb the corporate ladder, and impress, but has taken the liberty to sponsor this endeavor with the shipyards name. Soon Maurice’s calamitous play has gotten the attention of tournament officials, and the television broadcast. Michael is gathered at a pub with higher-ups at the same time as Maurice is being urged to quit at the turn. Maurice will have none of it, this is his dream, and he gamely marches on.

This portion of the movie is highly comic, and well turned with the playing partners dismay, the fans disbelief which will soon turn to cheery exuberance, and the officials dismay. Michael is in dismay, too as he tries to avert his co-workers attention away from from the television broadcast, desperately hoping that they won’t realize who the golfing miscreant is. That is not to be. The comically horrid play is now becoming a thing right up to the 18th hole, where Flitcroft finally has his moment of glory…well, almost. He hits a great tee shot to about eight feet, and well, I won’t say what happened, but it all was part of his epic score of 121, the worst in the history of the British Open.

This all causes Maurice to become a sensation of sorts, much to the horror of the British golfing establishment. He is banned from all golf clubs, but that is not going to deter Flitcroft, who vows to continue to practice and improve, and concocts a scheme to try and qualify the next year…..as French golfer Gerald Hoppy, replete with a horrible dark wig and fake mustache. He plays a bit better but his game, and the ruse comes acropper in the tenth hole hunker, where he hacks away, and is recognized by Keith McKenzie (Rhys Ifans), the head of the Royal and Ancient Golf Association. The cops are called to grab the trespasser, and Flitcroft is arrested.

The notoriety and scandal start a downward spiral. Flitcroft loses his job, and is next to unhirable. But he continues to golf and he continues to try and qualify, using other aliases and odd names. However, times grow extremely hard. He loses his home, his sons berate him in a scene in the couples motor home, having lost the family residence, and he heads away, “It’s a Wonderful Life” style.

But dreamers deserve happy endings, and not surprisingly there will be an interesting one in store. I won’t reveal further details, but note that the fact that it’s a true story certainly helps the Hollywood-style final act of this precious little gem seem less trite than it might have been.

“The Phantom of The Open” is not a weighty film, and actually the story could have been handled in multiple other ways. But the writer and director have opted for lighter faire, and I think that’s the right decision. In lesser hands than those of Rylance and Hawkins, this may not have worked, but their work, those of the rest of the fine cast, and the well-crafted direction, all add up to a very amiable and nice time at the movies.

Clink Scale 7.3