Mark Rylance’s pitch-perfect turn as the worst golfer in the Open’s history follows in the slipstream of valiant loser dramas, from Rocky and Slap Shot to Cool RunningsThe underdog sports drama is an inspirational but essentially results-oriented film genre.
No matter how hopeless the aspiring athlete(s) at the outset of proceedings, the story brings them, at the very least, to the brink of victory: talent is prized and rewarded.
The Phantom of the Open (out now on multiple VOD platforms), however, is a pleasing exception to the formula – a sporting biopic in which the improbable hero’s outright crapness at his inexplicably chosen game is not just frankly stated but actively celebrated.A middle-aged shipyard worker who blagged his way into golf’s 1976 Open Championship and proceeded to shoot the worst score on record, Maurice Flitcroft entered history mostly as a tabloid amusement.
Buoyed up by
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