Inside Pulse Review – Goal! The Dream Begins

Credit: www.IMPAwards.com

Director:

Danny Cannon

Cast:

Kuno Becker……….Santiago Munez
Alessandro Nivola……….Gavin Harris
Stephen Dillane……….Glen Foy
Anna Friel……….Roz Harmison
Marcel Iures……….Erik Dornhelm
Sean Pertwee……….Barry Rankin
Tony Plana……….Hernan Munez
Cassandra Bell……….Christina

Touchstone Pictures presents Goal! The Dream Begins. Written by Dick Clement, Ian La Frenais, Mike Jefferies and Adrian Butchart. Running time: 117 minutes. Rated PG (for language, sexual situations and some thematic material including partying).

From college basketball to spelling bees, 2006 has seen several sports-related dramas released in theaters. Goal! The Dream Begins is a saga about the most popular sport in the world. Well, except for the United States. Futbol, what Americans refer to as soccer, is watched by millions, perhaps billions worldwide. Why it is not adored here is a mystery.

The movie has a simple formula. A kid from Mexico kicks a soccer ball in hopes that one day it will lead him to stardom. His father scoffs at his son’s dreams. He tells him there are two kinds of people: Those who live in expensive mansions and those who mow their lawns and wash their cars. His grandmother believes in him, as does the scout who gets him a tryout with Newcastle United, one of the top teams in Britain. Then you have the rocky relationship he has with a beautiful nurse and his insipid friendship with the team’s top footballer.

Derived the narrative may be, it works because the story is earnest and the characters are genuine. It also works because the focus is placed on one player, not an entire team. Yes, there is the Newcastle United Northern Rock soccer club, but an undocumented immigrant named Santiago Munez is the heart of the story.

Kuno Becker brings dimension to his starring performance as he demonstrates his desire to play soccer. The range of emotions he goes through makes us want to root and cheer for him. When he makes a shot we want to stand up and say “GOAL!!!” As the all-grown-up Santiago Munez, Becker works as a busboy in a Los Angeles Chinese restaurant. When he isn’t cleaning tables or helping his father cut lawns in posh neighborhoods, Santiago plays in a rinky-dink soccer league. The guy is so poor he uses cardboard to act as shin protectors. His soccer style impresses a former pro turned scout (Stephen Dillane), who tells Santiago he has potential. Making a phone call to the head coach of Newcastle United, a tryout will be made possible once Santiago travels to London.

Herein lies the rub. Santiago needs an airplane ticket to London. He has some money saved up, 1200 dollars in all, but his father (Tony Plana) pilfers it to buy a pickup truck and start his own lawn-mowing service. Not a very fatherly thing to do, stealing from your oldest son. Though having your own business is more practical than living a dream, right?

While Santiago’s father crushes his dreams, his grandmother (Miriam Colon) uses some of her savings and pays for him to take a bus to San Diego. From there he takes a train to Mexico City. Finally, he flies to London from Mexico. Considering he has neither a social security number nor an American passport, this is the best course of action.

Arriving in London, Santiago is in for a rude awakening. The pros at Newcastle United are a hardened lot and don’t take too kindly to the new guy. His tryout is undesirable, as pouring rains make Santiago lose his footing, making him kick up clumps of mud and water. He gets a second chance to prove himself, but almost loses his place on the team because he lied about having asthma; without his inhaler he had a less than stellar outing with the reserve squad.

Santiago’s saving grace is his friendship with the team’s highest paid superstar Gavin Harris (Alessandro Nivola). Harris is quite the partier, constantly arriving late to practice and scrimmages. Santiago doesn’t like the nightclub lifestyle; he prefers more peaceful surroundings. The camaraderie they share is a novel approach of showing how a benevolent, albeit impoverished, immigrant and a guy making eight million pounds a year would get along.

Surprisingly, when Goal! The Dream Begins was over I thought it had finished. The End. El Fin. Turns out Goal! 2: Living the Dream will arrive later this year, and Goal! 3 is scheduled for a 2007 release.

It is near impossible to create a bad sports movie. Each one has its strengths and weaknesses, yet is able to overcome its shortcomings and deliver when an underdog player overcomes adversity and cements his legacy. Many times we have seen the stiff-necked coaches with five o’clock shadow who let the job consume their lives, parents who don’t understand what their children want to achieve, or a squad of bad apples as teammates. This soccer drama is enjoyable because it has more of a human element as it focuses on Santiago’s life than his performance in the clutch.

Living the American Dream is what most immigrants aspire to achieve. With the debate of immigration raging on in the States, Goal! The Dream Begins implies but doesn’t overtly give attention to the subject. Santiago’s father tells his son that we should be content to be poor. But Santiago is driven not because being an exceptional footballer will make him wealthy. He loves soccer and will never give up on his dream.