Quaint Cinema - Quintessentially British

Sony Pictures Classics

The story of Maurice Flitcroft, the central character of the recent British motion picture, The Phantom of the Open (2021), is indeed a preposterous one. Yet the events depicted in the film actually happened, and portray one of those fantastical yet utterly humanic stories that warm the hearts of even the most frigid of us.

Maurice Flitcroft (Mark Rylance), dubbed the “worlds worst golfer”, was a crane driver from Barrow-On-Furness in Cumbria who attempted to qualify for The Open despite never before having played a round of golf. He subsequently went on to a hit a score of 121 (49 over par) in the qualifying round of the 1976 championship. His audacious manner and stark likability, however, would ensure he became something of a folk hero in the process, causing a fair amount of irk to some of professional golfs more elitist members.

Flitcroft was a “dreamer and unrelenting optimist” and it’s through this guise that the film draws much of its unequivocal charm. Rylance, naturally, operates as a consummate vessel through which to express these qualities. But, naturally, we’ve come to expect nothing less from the esteemed stage actor, whose recent success in the medium of cinema came after he initially decided to quit film acting in 2010.

Ryland is joined at the helm by the ethereal Sally Hawkins, who plays the characters wife and long-time partner, Jean Flitcroft. Hawkins has become something of a cultural darling in recent years, due largely to her captivating, Oscar-winning performance as Elisa Esposito in The Shape of Water (2017). Of her casting, writer/director Guillermo Del Toro is quoted as saying “"Not only was she the first choice, she was the only choice. I wrote the movie for Sally, I wrote the movie for Michael [Shannon]... Sally is -- I wanted the character of Elisa to be beautiful, in her own way, not in a way that is like a perfume commercial kind of way. That you could believe that this character, this woman would be sitting next to you on the bus. But at the same time she would have a luminosity, a beauty, almost magical, ethereal."

In character pieces such as The Phantom of the Open, we often forgot to acknowledge the essential direction that a well-written script provides; so hoodwinked are we by the film’s “main drawer”,, the performance of it’s lead actor or actress. But in this case, the film’s quaint narrative is so laced with quintessential British idiosyncrasies that it’s unfeasible not to feel comforted, touched, amused and a little humbled.

It’s almost like a visit to your to the abode of your favourite grandparents. There’s the obligatory cup of tea, of course (six sugars in the case of Flitcroft). But there’s also life lessons to be learnt, and they’re worth savouring.

Writer Scott Murray aptly describes the film as “one of the great jump-the-rope sporting stories, a proper real-life romp.” In trying times, we yearn for films such as this, that remind us of the wonderment and honestly bonkers side of life. It’s the film’s simple and earnest depictions of these peculiarities that ultimately make it such a joy to behold.