The Phantom of the Open

 

The Phantom of the Open
Starring Mark Rylance, Sally Hawkins, Rhys Ifans, Jake Davies
Directed by Craig Roberts

The British has a unique subgenre all its own: I don't think there's a name for it, but it has to do with telling the true story of unique, eccentric people who - against all odds - managed to persevere and change the course of history, albeit in extremely small ways. "Calendar Girls" was the true story of a group of elderly women who created a nude calendar to raise money for Leukemia. "Eddie the Eagle" told the true story of an unlikely British ski jumper named Michael Edwards. "Blinded by the Light" told the story of journalist Sarfraz Manzoor and how his love of Bruce Springsteen's music shaped his world. Last year's "Dream Horse" was about a group of citizens led by Jan Vokes who raised a horse to compete in the most prestigious horse races in England. Now there's "The Phantom of the Open," the wholly unlikely true story of a man who never played a game of golf in his life, yet managed to get a spot in the British Open.

Maurice Flitcroft (Mark Rylance) is a crane operator in Barrow-in-Furness with a loving wife Jean (Sally Hawkins), twin sons Gene (Christian Lees) and James (Jonah Lees), and an elder son Michael (Jake Davies) who's a successful businessman. He never really accomplished his dreams, but pushed his sons to pursue theirs: until one night in 1975 when he sees Tom Watson winning the British Open in 1975, and decides that he wants to be a golfer. Ever the dreamer, Maurice enters into the British Open under false - but genuine - pretenses, and in 1976 he get to play his dream. This dream, however, turned into a nightmare for Keith Mackenzie (Rhys Ifans), the head of the British Open, after discovering that Maurice is no golfer - in fact, he scored the highest score in British Open history (for those non-golfers like myself, that's really bad). Banished from the Open and other golf clubs in England, Maurice decides to play again wearing a disguise and a pseudonym, earning himself a cult following of other underdogs who appreciate his genuine heart and love for a game he really knows nothing about, as well as being highly annoying to the snobby upper class.

Much like the aforementioned films, "The Phantom of the Open" has a certain charm that's infectious and undeniable, even if the story itself is very thinly written. This charm forgives the film for being so underlying in its storytelling because you really root for the main character (in this case Maurice) and really enjoy the wacky zany journey he finds himself on. I'm no golfer myself, and I was as surprised as anyone to find out this really was a true story, and this man really did go out of his way to find himself at the British Open with no real golfing knowledge - it's like if I ended up playing the Super Bowl. I have to commend the man (who passed away in 2007) for his tenacity and never-give-up attitude, and for turning the elitist world of golfing upside down and giving the everyman someone to root for.

Mark Rylance is a unique actor, an Oscar-winner who's roles all seem to generate around a certain eccentricity that's extremely hard to define. Whether he's playing a kooky reclusive video game developer in "Ready Player One" or a Elon Musk-type character in "Don't Look Up," he always has a cadence to his voice that's wholly uniquely his own. He uses that cadence here to portray Maurice Flitcroft as a man who's highly simplistic in his thinking (he didn't seem to be a genius), but also a dreamer: a man who regrets giving up on his dreams in the past and doesn't want to make the same mistake again. So when he suddenly catches the golf bug, he pursues it with all his heart, mind, and soul. While he's obviously out of his element at the British Open (with so many hilarious moments of him trying and failing to really succeed, but not in a way that insults the man), he's having the time of his life, and those that watched it were as well. Instead of seeing stuffy, snobby, rich men hitting balls, they see themselves on the telly, turning Maurice into an unlikely cult hero. Rylance owns the role and disappears into it with ease.

The eccentric supporting characters also have their own roles to play, even if some are rather stinted, most notably Oscar-nominee Sally Hawkins, who plays Maurice's wife Jean. She basically exists to egg her husband on, and help him in his good-natured schemes to get into the British Open. Rhys Ifans' Keith Mackenzie is easily Wile E. Coyote to Maurice's Roadrunner, giving a comical and ole-timey cat-and-mouse game between the two men. Twin actors Christian and Jonah Lees play Maurice's twin sons who are just as eccentric as their father, as they travel the world performing as disco dancers. Only Jake Davies' Michael is grounded in reality, wanting to separate himself from his father's shenanigans because he worries it'll threaten his work. With someone as colorful as Maurice, you need an equally colorful palette of characters around him, and this works out.

If there's anything to say about this film, it's the simplistic way it tells its story. Maurice sees a golf game one night and has a vividly entertaining vision about being a golfer, and that's it - yet there seems that there should've been more to the story of why Maurice decided to be a golfer other than that. Then there's some entertaining chase scenes (most notably Maurice and his caddie trying to avoid cops after he's caught playing the British Open as another character) that are also reminiscent of more classic movie storytelling, but it stops before being able to go all-in on the insanity. There was something more to the story here, and it's frustrating that we didn't get to see it all play out - but in the end it's still a film that lands on par with other films in its unique subgenre, and will leave you with a smile on your face.

The Score: B