The Damned United

Dir. Tom Hooper
Starring: Michael Sheen, Timothy Spall, Colm Meaney, Henry Goodman, Maurice Roeves
U.K., 2009, 98 mins.

England’s most famous football manager that never was, Brian Clough (Michael Sheen), is at the center of director Tom Hooper’s lens in The Damned United. However, don’t write this one off as just another football film, the team behind Frost/Nixon and The Queen (producer Andy Harris, writer Peter Morgan, and actor Michael Sheen) reunite in this smart and delightfully entertaining portrait of Clough as he rose to take the reins of Leeds United for a mere 44 days in the 1970s.

Sheen brings restraint, depth, sensitivity and dark humor to Clough, and the football coach’s crucial relationship with his trusted right-hand man, Peter Taylor (played with hot-blooded vigor by Timothy Spall) is just as intriguing, if not more entertaining than all of the football footage.

The Damned United is a feel-good film that will have long-time Premier League fans a hoot and a hollering (trust me, the ones in the audience were!) throughout the film, as well as those who have only heard of David Beckham as a “soccer player” entertained alike.