Goal! - The Dream Begins
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Movie Reviews of Goal! - The Dream Begins
Movie Review: good soccer movie
Summary: 5 Stars
great soccer movie. anyone who plays or is around soccer will love it.Movie Review: Warm & entertaining . . . it also offers some interesting life lessons!
Summary: 4 Stars
I am not a football fan, although I had been to a real foot-ball stadium, & that was about thirty years ago. It was in Dortmund, West Germany, where I was undergoing factory training with O & K Orenstein Kopel AG.
A German service engineer had invited me to watch a foot-ball match between the home team & a team from Munich, during one weekend. I can't recall who won, but to me that was the first & the last time I had seen a real foot-ball game.
Since I am not a football fan, I don't watch the EPL or World Cup on television. In fact, I just don't understand why people can get so frenzy with watching foot-ball matches on television.
The last time I had seen a foot-ball match on television was while watching the action movie, 'Escape to Victory'. It starred Sylvester Stallone & Michael Caine, plus a handful of real-world foot-ballers - Pele, Bobby Moore - I could not recognise the others.
The movie was about a foot-ball match between a ragtag group of Allied prisoners & a German foot-ball team, which the Nazis had originally planned to promote as a propaganda event during WWII. To the chagrin of their German captors, the Allied prisoners had used the closing of the game as a brilliant escape with the spectators.
Last night, after channel surfing, & also checking out the synopsis, I finally settled down to watch a movie entitled 'Goal! The Dream Begins'.
Frankly, all the actors or actress in the movie were unknown, at least to me, with the exception of Tony Plana, whom I last saw as the prison warden in the action movie, 'Half Past Dead', opposite Steven Seagal, who played an undercover agent.
In a nutshell, the movie traced the exploits of a young Mexican immigrant, Santiago Nunez (played by Huno Decker, a Latin American actor) from Los Angeles, working in the building maintenance crew with his divorced father (played by Tony Plana).
He often dreamed of becoming an international foot-ball star. In fact, he spent most of his evenings in street-corner matches.
One day, while dribbling with his ball, he was spotted by Glen, a visiting talent scout from UK, who was a retired foot-ball player with Premiership Club Newcastle United.
Glen called his ex-boss/club manager, Erik, to inform him of his talent finding. Erik agreed to give the young man an opportunity, & Glen invited Santiago to come to UK.
Santiago's hard-headed father was dead against the whole idea, as he believed that the entire family could only made it through hard-work by setting up their own building maintenance business. To discourage the son, the father even snatched part of the son's own meagre savings to pump into the new business.
Fortunately, his grand-mother was supportive of his dreams, & managed to get him an air-ticket & some cash to fly to UK via Mexico city.
Upon arrival, he got in touch with Glen, who invited him to stay in his private home. Glen then arranged for him to go for his "screen test" under the watchful eye of Erik.
It was raining heavily that fateful day, & the foot-ball grounds were a muddy mess, & so poor Santiago flunked his first "screen test".
Glen pleaded to Erik to give the young man a chance. Santiago got one month to prove himself.
At this point, the movie traced his trials & tribulations as a rookie in the premiership club. As usual in most movies, he also got romantically entangled with a beautiful nurse. He also got teamed up with another newly recruited footballer, Gavin, from Germany.
The latter was a night owl & party animal, who introduced him to the booze, the parties, the clubbing, & the women, often associated with the decadent lifestyle of foot-ball stars we read in the papers.
Santiago (as well as Gavin) almost got kicked out of the club, if not for the unwavering support of Glen, the nurse/girl-friend, the coach, & of course, the club manager/boss, Erik, who truly saw the raw talent in the young man.
It was quite fun to watch Erik showing the young man the importance of being a team player in a club, & sharing some important pointers about game discipline.
I like one particular confrontation dialogue between Erik & Santiago, who uttered: "The only one who can tell me I'm not good enough is you. And even then I may not agree with you."
Of course, the movie ended with a critical match in London, where both Santiago & Gavin finally demonstrated their natural ballistic prowess with their heads & legs.
I have really enjoyed watching the movie. Despite some minor technical goofs here & there, & from an overall standpoint, it has been entertaining & warm to watch. Interestingly, David Beckham had a cameo role in the movie.
For me, it also has many interesting learning points.
In the course of pursuing our fondest dreams, one should always remember all the people who cared, especially those who have extended their encouragement &/or help in one way or another as we move forward.
In the case of Santiago, his grand-mother, his mentor in the person of Glen, his girl-friend, his coach in the club, & of course, the club manager/boss, Erik, all played their contributing part in his journey to personal success.
Even his hard-headed father, who often refused to acknowledge the son's phone calls whenever the latter had called home, had drilled into him the importance of standing up for himself, with no excuses whatsoever.
In fact, the father was very proud of his son, when he happened to witness one of his son's foot-ball matches on television, while visiting a local pub in Los Angeles.
This important fact was only made known to Santiago by the grandmother, after the father had died of a sudden heart attack on a job site. The earlier news about his father's unexpected demise had somewhat tormented him, which affected his training.
This personal realisation about his father's eventual acknowledgement certainly gave him the necessary closure to move on with his own life as a foot-ball star. In fact, that was his defining moment, as he had earlier made several vain attempts to seek understanding & recognition from his angry father.
What I am saying in the end analysis is that, warm support of the spouse &/or family plays a very important role in one's journey in life.
Movie Review: "Keep your feet on the ground and not your head in the sky,"
Summary: 4 Stars
Slickly made and featuring a terrifically involving performance from its lead man Kuno Becker, Goal is the epitome of a your rags-to-riches fairy tale, a truly romanticized ode to improbable dreams. Thankfully, the direction and performances are good enough to get us through the progressively hackneyed storyline and a screenplay that seems intent to offer up almost every single cliché in the book.
Illegally crossing into America as a child, Santiago Muñez, grows up in the barrio of East Los Angeles, sure of only one thing - his indelible love of soccer and that one day he wants to do something with his talent. He supports himself by working as a kitchen hand in a Chinese restaurant and as a gardener for his blue-collar dad, Hernan (Tony Plana) who tells him to stop dreaming and focus on supporting his family.
Glen Foy (Stephen Dillane) - a part-time talent scout and a former championship footballer with contacts in U.K. soccer world - spots Santiago playing and manages to persuade Erik Dornhelm (Marcel Iures), the German manager of Newcastle United, to give Santiago a tryout if he comes to the U.K.
With the help of his kindly grandmother (Miriam Colon), who tells him "to follow his dream," Santiago arrives in London, takes the train north and turns up unannounced on Glen's doorstep. Now in the cold and rainy Northeast England, Santiago has a month to prove himself worthy of playing alongside the cocky playboy David Beckham-like star Gavin Harris (Alessandro Nivola).
Apart from the obviously clichéd look of the film - Los Angeles is filmed in shades of burnt out orange and the UK is constantly awash in rainy washed-out blue - the poor Santiago is faced with many hurdles and indeed looks like an exotic looking fish out of water as he fights to stay on the reserve soccer team and achieve his inevitable path towards football glory.
The drama comes from the fact that he keeps mucking up. He's not used to playing in the rain and mud and there's the problem with his asthma that he keeps secret from Dornhelm and the attractive team nurse (Anna Friel) whom he has a crush on. He's on the team and then he's off the team, then there's a tragedy at home which forces him to rethink his priorities, and then he's faced with the inevitable moral choice of being an upright young man rather than party with the irresponsible Gavin.
The stereotypical characters are all here - the conceited and uncaring agent, the kindly grandma, the love-interest nurse, the cheering coach, the nasty team member, the truculent father, the quietly supportive kid brother. The film starts off very strong - the best scenes are those set in Los Angeles - but the story steadily begins to hinge on contrived coincidences and eventually starts to look like one long training session.
Becker is the main reason to see this film - he's an actor with a big future, a charming, ruggedly fine-looking presence, and even though his playing scenes are clearly doubled, we get a strong feel for the character both on and off the pitch.
Of course, we do get caught up in it all as the film surges to its astonishingly predicable conclusion, which mainly tugs at the heartstrings because this fine cast has managed to earn our sympathy. Perhaps the next two installments of this story - yes, there's a Goal 2 and 3 soon to be released! - will generate a bit more invention and creativity and finally make this franchise of Santiago's journey, a story that we can truly root for. Mike Leonard October 06.
Movie Review: 'Goal! The Dream Begins' Scores!
Summary: 4 Stars
After a plethora of inspirational sports' movies, some of the masses may be getting tired. Inspirational, like many, but more tightly woven than most, `Goal! The Dream Begins' is a foot ahead of most sports' films. This time we're offered a different venue. Soccer may not be a convincing viewers' choice, but most jock movies since `Hoosiers' know how to tell a good story. This film excels at getting our attention, gives us believable dialogue that won't make most cynics cringe, and provides an underdog character we easily care about.
Such is the trek of Santiago Munez (Kuno Becker) whom we see as a boy crossing the Mexican border with his family into the US as an illegal immigrant. Narrowly escaping the border patrol, we poignantly see his father ordering him to leave his soccer ball behind and hurry up. This practical tension sets up the family drama. Fast forward ten years, and we see him grown up, and his family is divided. Living in Los Angeles, the Munez family must live on small means with manual labor and a paternal household where the mother has abandoned the family. Santiago shares a bedroom with his much younger brother, and the grandmother gives everyone a boost with her devout presence. As with so many sports' underdog movies, the father is against his son becoming a pro ball player. Here it isn't clear whether he's a practical skeptic (like in 'The Greatest Game') or a jealous man. We can't judge him too harshly, for he has his own dream coming to fruition: his own construction business.
One day Santiago is spotted by British soccer team manager, Glen Foy (Stephen Dillane), who wants to acquire him to his UK team. His dreams are truncated by his father, but fostered by the grandmother. (Is there ever going to be a movie where the father supports his underdog son? I'm sure there are already, but we are short of them.) Anyway, great developments occur as he gets acclimated to his new English team, playing for New Castle. His first practice is hardly stellar. In the cold, English rains, he is out of his league. The language barrier, which most Americans would struggle with, demonstrate a foreign English. (Some colorful British expressions will be lost on the American audience. Most did on me.) Merciless teammates are intolerant of their foreign acquisition and give it to him for his lack of immediate progress in ethnic terms. Jaime and Kevin round out the group and give him enough slack, with Foy's line of second chances, to deliver him a shot at his dream. In the meantime, "Santi," as he becomes known, fancies a beautiful nurse; one who brings out the best in him and is unwilling to consummate a relationship with a potential star. "It's not footballers I have a problem with.," she explains, "It's the fame." With Kevin's ego, Santi almost takes a plummet, but at least he survives. Watch this beautiful movie, and see how well it all flies.
`Goal!..` is easily a crowd pleaser, but it wins for craftsmanship and good form. The acting is good, the editing is judicious, and the story weaves its way to the goal line. (Alessandro Nivola, who plays Kevin, makes a special transformation from the passionate man, David in 'Junebug' to the egotistical soccer star, doing more than changing accents.) Music usually accentuates sports' movies well, but I have a particular affection for the special way the alternative music and the score pump adrenaline and weave sentiment into the various scenes. 'Goal! The Dream Begins' wins on many levels. (Excellent entertainment.)
Movie Review: A Film with a Heart
Summary: 4 Stars
Yes, this is another sports biography that offers a stage on which to play out the drama of the possibilities of dreams of the disenfranchised to become a reality. There are many, many films like this one and will doubtless be more: something there is about the 'team spirit' in the identity crisis of whether or not the poor (financially) new guy will be able to make the physical grade that draws large audiences. It is a formula and it often works despite weak structure and production values.
In the case of GOAL! THE DREAM BEGINS the viewer can put aside the doubts as to whether the film can make it on its own: this little low profile movie is well written (Mike Jefferies's story adapted for the screen by Adrian Butchart), well directed by Danny Cannon who knows well how to integrate live sports scenes into the drama, and consistently well acted by a troop of excellent actors, beginning with the very vibrant, handsome, and charismatic Kuno Becker ('Lucia, Lucia', 'Imagining Argentina', 'Once Upon a Wedding', 'English as a Second Language'), a 28 year old Mexican actor with an assured future in the lead role of Santiago. The supporting roles are classy contributions by the gifted Alessandro Nivola ('The Sisters', 'Junebug', 'The Clearing', 'Laurel Canyon', 'Love's Labour's Lost', 'Mansfield Park' etc), the very beautiful Anna Friel, Stephen Dillane, Marcel Iures, Tony Plana, Miriam Colon to mention only a few.
The story is secondary: as a child devotee of soccer Santiago immigrates illegally into the US with his family, grows up in Los Angeles working as a gardener, a dishwasher and other menial tasks while he consumes his spare time with developing his unique talents for soccer. Despite his father's insistence that he remain with the family business of gardening, Santiago is discovered by a scout on vacation from England, a bond develops and soon Santiago is off to Newcastle to pursue his dream of being a professional soccer player. The rest is pretty obvious - the ups and downs of an asthmatic kid competing in the wild world of sports. The star of the moment is Alessandro Nivola and despite the differences in their goals and social life they become friends who help each other in tender ways. There is of course a love interest, telephone calls and encouragement form Santiago's grandmother, adjustments to life in the UK -all altering the road toward Santiago's eventually attained goal.
The film is a bit lengthy (two hours) for the content, but then we understand this is the first of a trilogy, so get used to the story and the characters as they all remain constant for the next two installments. Whatever reservations you may have about sitting through another predictable sports movie just relax them: Kuno Becker alone is worth the time invested in this very fine little film. Grady Harp, September 06