Film review: Michael Fassbender seems a little lost in Next Goal Wins
Next Goal Wins works best when focusing on the genuine, heart-warming bond forged by the players
★★★☆☆
Next Goal Wins (12A) stars Michael Fassbender as Thomas Rongen, a notoriously volatile coach who, in 2011, reluctantly takes up the position of manager to international football’s worst team: the idyllic Pacific island paradise of American Samoa, who once lost 31-0.
Working with a squad of amateurs that includes Jaiyan Saelua (Kaimana), a fa’afafine (or third gender) centre-half, and a raft of willing but limited triers, Rongen sets out to deliver on the modest remit established by the association’s president Tavita (Oscar Knightley): for his beloved team to score just one goal.
What follows is a typical sporting underdog story (Rongen’s team talks involve cribbing quotes from famous movies in the genre), albeit one that expends a lot of its energy — oddly, as New Zealander Taika Waititi directs — in indulging in whatever the American Samoan equivalent of paddywhackery might be.
Whimsical comedy is the order of the day, and particularly when it comes to the hard-drinking Rongen’s inability to accept the deeply religious but easy-going American Samoan people on their own terms.
Fassbender seems a little lost as he stomps around hectoring his troops to little avail; the story works best when focusing on the genuine, heart-warming bond (inexplicable to the win-at-all-costs-coach) forged by the players in the face of repeated disaster.
(cinema release)
