It’s hard to believe that Brett Ratner, director of the Rush Hour franchise, put together the worst ESPN 30 for 30 segment that I have seen. Mysteries of the Jules Rimet Trophy covers all the facts, but the production is flat, and the importance of the artifact is blown way out of proportion. It’s almost facetious. It’s not the Holy Grail, it’s a small piece of metal of a woman holding up a cup. It’s not even gold.
As far as mystery, the film builds up FIFA’s purchase at auction of a bronze replica, thinking that it was the lost original. And we see the Italian period of the trophy, when it was supposedly hidden under a bed in a shoebox while Nazi soldiers combed the house looking to confiscate artifacts.
However, dousing any excitement or interest, Edward Norton narrates the film as if he were reading a seventh grade term paper. (He worked with Ratner on Red Dragon).
So I recommend that a soccer nerd would be better served with any of these:
- FIFA keeps changing the location of articles, but they have a short writeup on the FIFA World Cup trophy. They also have a longer writeup.
- Wikipedia has a good writeup on the two thefts of the trophy
- Watch the Brazilian comedy Jules and Dolores, which fictionalizes how the second theft may have gone down in Brazil
5 Soccer Movie Mom Rating = 5
Resources:
- Released: 2014-05-06 (USA)
- 22 minutes long
- IMDB
- Director: Brett Ratner
- Stars: Grant Wahl , Edward Norton
