Bent Unlike Beckham

In exchange for the right to use real team uniforms in their movie, the producers of Goal! The Dream Begins gave FIFA, soccer's governing body, the right to approve the script. This fact is significant for two reasons. First, it answers a question likely to trouble most viewers: Did someone actually approve this script? And second, it reportedly drove director Michael Winterbottom to quit the project, which is a shame, because he is precisely what the film could have used.

In 2002's 24 Hour Party People, Winterbottom tackled a subject--the "Madchester" music scene of the 1980s--that is, like soccer, far more likely to mean something to a Brit than a Yank. He employed a host of nontraditional storytelling devices (such as the faux documentary and breaking down the fourth wall) to make a wildly entertaining movie that resonated with American viewers because it conveyed the underlying appeal of a uniquely British phenomenon. Unfortunately, Danny Cannon, the CSI vet who took over Goal!, shows none of Winterbottom's ingenuity, making an agreeable but ultimately familiar and predictable rags-to-riches tale.

Goal!, the first of a planned trilogy, tells the story of Santiago Munez (Kuno Becker), who, 10 years after sneaking out of Mexico with his family, is discovered playing soccer in an L.A. park by a down-on-his-luck scout (the outstanding Stephen Dillane) who arranges a tryout with club Newcastle. As if flying to northern England for a one-shot trial isn't an intimidating enough task for young Santiago, screenwriters Mike Jefferies and Adrian Butchart practically bury him with baggage: a father who doesn't support his dream; a mother who abandoned him; a love interest who's too deep to date soccer players; and a teammate who despises newbies so much that he stomps on Santiago's inhaler before a big game. (Did we mention he's got asthma, too?)

When he's not wheezing, Santiago does play some soccer, and it's those scenes that are the movie's best. Thanks to the FIFA deal, the game footage, which features some of the biggest names in European football ( Steven Gerrard, Alan Shearer) is fast and gritty. It shows the beautiful game at its most beautiful. Unfortunately, the movie gets so obsessed with loading challenges upon its hero that it never finds time to address the question of why the game arouses such passion in those who play it and watch it.