The Damned United Movie Review

The Damned United

Movie Review

Michael Sheen is making a habit of starring in factually inaccurate biopics of late. First came his portrayal of the drunk dialled Frost in Frost/Nixon. And now, scant months after that factual outrage/entertainment triumph he takes on Brian Clough's tempestuous 44-day tenure at Leeds in the Damned United.

Judging from the criticism heaped upon the novel, this movie might be best filed under fantasy, not biography. As with Sheen's last film (which shared a screenwriter in Peter Morgan) I entered with my eyes open, having been warned by a watchful media to be on guard for any historical dirty tricks.

The film opens with Don Revie (played by Colm Meaney, with a clinging globule of Irish in his Yorkshire pudding accent) stepping down as a successful and much loved Leeds United manager in order to take the much coveted England job. Brian Clough, on his way to take the reins, gives an interview on Yorkshire television lambasting Revie and his players for their dirty tactics. He then proceeds to the training ground to meet the men upon whom he has just poured scorn. Unsurprisingly, he isn't quite welcomed with open arms by his new charges. So begins his downward spiral as Leeds boss.

The first hour mainly reflects the path which led Clough to Leeds, and his relationship with his assistant Peter Taylor (played with more than a little homoerotic bonhomie by a brilliant Timothy Spall) with dashes of Clough's current predicament thrown in. Circa ten minutes into the first flashback I began to wonder where the presumed main story had gone. Both storylines are so inviting though that I didn't particularly care. If anything the Leeds sections run slightly flat by comparison – at least until the shifting time line fills in some gaps.

Despite his shortcomings as a manager and a person, you can't help but empathise with the Clough character. His hatred of Revie and urge to propel Derby to the top of the first division unfold throughout the course of the first two acts. It's a compliment to the fine script that there was no noticeable drop off in pacing or my level of interest when the narrative caught up with itself.

Spall and Meaney are both impressive, but Michael Sheen turns in a movie stealing performance as the mercurial Clough. He still oddly retains some of the Alan Partridge impression which follows him around from role to role though, in a reflection of his on-screen personality, Sheen is the whole show. Clough's preoccupation with building a reputational Reich to last a thousand years is exquisitely acted, and Sheen makes the most of every scene. In short, he is fantastic.

At the end of the day this is a film of three acts and the boy Clough goes down early under a soft challenge but eventually repays the faith shown in him (sorry, couldn't resist). If you're going to see this to point out that the Derby pitch was actually three metres wider, or that John Giles was two inches taller in real life, forget it. If you can treat this offering as the faction it is then you can derive real enjoyment from some finely written cinema. Look out for Sheen's next picture "How Churchill freed the slaves", out soon.

8.5