Mark Rylance has become a veteran actor that a talented filmmaker can build a compelling, heartwarming, and unforgettable story around and audiences will leave the theater altered in some little way. He achieved that in earlier this year’s The Outfit, and he’s done it again in the true tale Phantom of the Open.
The Oscar Supporting Actor winner for Steven Spielberg’s Bridge of Spies is himself a classically trained British actor whose training and vitae have produced a thespian whose work is continually and absolutely never even the slightest bit above average. This is a performer whose embodiment of character takes the entire process to an entirely different level. There’s a vulnerability to his characters that also possess an unforeseen strength. They prove too much for the antagonists—usually in the most simultaneously unpredictable of ways. That certainly happens in The Phantom of the Open.
Rylance is Maurice Flitcroft, a British shipyard worker, just like his father and his father before him. He raised several boys and his oldest, who works in management at the facility, hints to good ole dad that privatization is on the horizon and in this Maggie Thatcher-set time period, which meant some seriously rough times. Labor needs were stuck at a post-World War II level as the planet ever-slowly changed from a manufacturing-based economy to those anchored in the digital world and the chasm between the rich and the working class has never been larger, until today.
It is 1974 and faced with that news, the man who married to Jean Flitcroft (Shape of Water star Sally Hawkins), wonders what to do and what path to forge into the future. Then, he sees Tom Watson winning the British Open on the television and he literally has a physical reaction. Life will never be the same for Flitcroft. He doesn’t own any clubs. Maurice doesn’t possess any of the clothes or even the shoes. This man has never played a single hole of gold in his entire almost five-decade life.
Slowly, but surely, he finds his unlikely way into the British Open and makes history in not necessarily the manner with which one would have chosen. He has shot the worst score in a single round in the tournament’s history. But the British people and the crowds at the Open embrace his stiff British upper lip and unbridled determination. Tens of thousands cheer him on and he becomes a bit of a sensation.
If you’re a casting director thinking of your pie in the sky actor to portray the title character in Phantom of the Open, the mind must immediately go to Rylance. His Oscar-winning work in Bridge of Spies coupled with his innate sense of humor that comes through every single frame and it was an easy decision who should play Maurice.
Meanwhile, Hawkins is sublime as his supremely supporting wife, Jean Flitcroft. She’s such a gifted actress whose versatility shined in the Oscar-winning The Shape of Water—and honestly, through every facet of her career. Her Jean has a way of saying the right thing at the right time to her husband, just when he desperately needs to hear it. Witnessing her watching him on the television as he does his thing in the British Open is the definition of spousal pride. The look on her face… we wish we could bottle it.
Director Craig Roberts has the most sensational touch throughout his latest film. Whether he was moved by the story, compelled to produce crowd-pleasing joy… who knows? His motivation doesn’t matter. It’s what Roberts did with the story and his talent that has woven a web that will inspire every soul, especially ones who are not necessarily movie or tennis appreciators.
They often toss around the phrase “actor’s director.” After watching Roberts’ The Phantom of the Open, every frame is filled with complete adoration for not only the subject but the process of moviemaking itself. It’s rare that an audience can sense that elusive feeling, but it is all over this golf true tale.
The Phantom of the Open is one of those sports films that makes you get up in cheer, even for folks who aren’t necessarily “sports movie fans.”
Film Grade: A