Scoreless Draw

Goal!

Director: Danny Cannon

Cast: Kuno Becker, Anna Friel, Marcel Lures, Alessandro Nivola

Cert: PG

The beautiful game has not always been well served by filmdom - think, in spite of its recent high placing in a poll, Escape to Victory. The best that can be said of this effort is that it is not quite as bad as you might fear.

A sort of Blackburn Rovers kind of film: not much expectation, but then the shock of beating Manchester United at Old Trafford.

The story comes from Dick Clement and Ian Le Frenais, who penned the classic Likely Lads TV series and The Commitments film, and is conventional enough. A hot young Los Angeles Latino from the barrio (Becker) gets, for some reason, a trial with Newcastle United, is an instant hit and guides them to European glory.

It is not, you can be assured, a fantasy but a serious, of sorts, attempt to make a decent fist of footie on film. The authenticity is helped by the inclusion of such ‘real’ stars of the game as David Beckham, Zinedine Zidane, Kieron Dyer, Patrick Klivert and Alan Shearer.

An honourable draw you could say.

Star Rating: 3/5