It’s very tempting –and lazy– to rate the film Marvellous (British spelling) as marvelous (American spelling), as in extraordinary, surprising, wonderful, and amazing. The truth is that the film is very heartwarming but not quite marvelous, because it is so understated, much like Neil Baldwin, the man on which it is based.
About the story
Neil Baldwin (Toby Jones) is a man who constantly defies expectations because, frankly, no one expects anything but failure or burden from someone who is intellectually disabled. But Neil is wise enough to realize that happiness comes from within. He is steadfastly positive. He knows how to utilize whatever support network is available. He has his dear mum Mary Baldwin (Gemma Jones), and he makes friends with politicians, priests, bishops, footballers, referees, and managers. He is also a licensed circus clown known as Nello the Clown.
He appoints himself as an unofficial greeter at the nearby campus of Keele University. He makes friends with a student named Malcolm and goes to campus parties and Stoke games. He starts his own Neil Baldwin Football Club and names Gary Linneker as president, with himself as manager and center midfielder.
His natural ability to make people care about him results in his becoming the kit man for Stoke City. Manager Lou Macari (Tony Curran) considers Neil his best signing ever. Macari says he’s given Neil a job because he’s genuine and gives the Stoke City Potters a lift. For example, Neil goes out on the field in a full chicken suit. The Stoke fans chant his name as Nello or “Fat bastard”. Whether it’s Neil’s clowning positivity or Macari’s coaching, Stoke wins the 2nd Division in the 1992-1993 season, with an unbeaten run of 25 games.
Those are the football-themed highlights of Neil’s life, but the rest of the film shows how he manages his life and how he affects others. It’s a lot like watching the AppleTV series Ted Lasso, where our souls are touched and inspired by Ted’s goodness, positivity, and simple wisdom.
The Soccer
The soccer in the film consists largely of demonstrating Neil’s inability to play, along with in-stadium scenes of fans and locker room scenes of footballers. There are cameos by Garry Linneker and Uriah Rennie, the first Black referee in the EPL.
In Conclusion
In an interesting application of breaking the fourth wall, there are small scenes where the real characters and the actors portraying them sit together and talk about what is going on in the film. It’s as if to confirm that yes, that incident really happened. So we see the actors discuss the prior scene with the real life Neil Baldwin, Manager Lou Macari, and the real life Malcolm. Malcolm, it turns out, remained a lifelong friend of Neil’s and helped him write the memoir, that became a play, that became this movie.
The one thing about the film that truly flummoxed me was that you must have a license to be a circus clown in England?
I really enjoyed Marvellous. If you like the Ted Lasso series, there is a lot for you here, spiritually speaking. You’ll have escaped for 90 minutes from the dystopia of the world, and afterwards, you’ll feel very good about society. If you’re looking for babes or sex, there’s nothing here for you.
8 Soccer Movie Mom Rating = 8
Resources:
- Released: 2014-09-25 (BBC Two TV)
- I watched this on Amazon Prime
- 90 minutes
- IMDB
- WIKI
- Director: Julian Farino
- Stars: Toby Jones (Neil Baldwin) , Gemma Jones (Mary Baldwin) , Tony Curran (Lou Macari)
- Watch the Trailer
