Review of The Damned United (2009) by Ankur G — 24 Feb 2010

Thank the powers that be, this isn't some inspirational underdog sports flick. Quite the opposite in fact. This is a clash of egos. Brian Clough's ego over his own importance, the manager he replaced's ego, the players' egos, and so on and so forth.

We never see a full game played here. Just the important moments of the few games played during Clough's 44 day reign as the (damned) United Leeds football (soccer) team. The backstory, the behind the scenes, are the focus, and it become much more interesting, intense, and dramatic thanks to that. There's more at stake than some trophy or title, there are careers, and because the movie focuses on the characters and their relationships to each other, there's much more at stake.

Of course, all this would be for not if it was too melodramatic or hampered by awful performances; it's not, at all. The script is whip smart, with not an ounce of schmaltz or pandering. Tom Hooper, working from a fictionalized novel of the true account, plays it straight and knowing, as if it was fate to end the way it does. A huge amount of restraint is shown here, which could have come off as dull, but under Hooper, it comes off as a tragic distancing, adding to the idea that it's all predetermined.

Michael Sheen as Brian Clough is a revelation. Not to say he hasn't been great before, quite the opposite, I find him to almost always be excellent, but here, he goes to new glorious heights. It's an arresting performance that seems to be three steps ahead. He really gets Clough's perfectionist ways and never ending ambition down, with both seeming more of traits that makes him irreplaceable, in his own mind at least. The scene where the players tell him how piss poor he's doing, watch the way his shoulders and posture change during his rant on them. See the sad look in the eyes, as if he's ruining them on purpose, but doesn't want to. Subtle and excellent.

As his only true friend, and football partner, Timothy Spall is quite impressive as well. Near the end, when he's forcing Clough to beg, it clearly hurts him, but he needs to make sure of his friend's seriousness. Very good.

Everyone else does a solid job, but no one else gets to really show off the way those two do.

The end captions tells us that after he was dismissed Clough goes onto a smaller team and made history. Maybe he was right along, "you can't play with people you don't know in a place you aren't from".