Review: Goal 2 - Living The Dream

So I’ve continues on with the Goal series, first one was a pleasant surprise and I know the third one is horrendous dog-shit so for curiosity more than anything, I’ve stuck with it. But I’m already seeing the downward trajectory with Living The Dream having more than its fair share of issues.

Namely not having a fucking ending.

Set a little while after the first film, Santiago Munez is now a superstar for Newcastle United, so much so that he’s sought after by Real Madrid – which, as someone who still doesn’t give a shit about football, even I know is a bad fucking deal – and signs a two year contract with the team and rejoins with old teammate Gavin Harris. This causes problems at home with Munez’s girlfriend, now fiancée, Roz needing to stay in England for her nursing exams and the commute between there and Spain taking a lot out of them. Already on edge from the long-distance relationship and being benched for most of his games by Couch van der Merwe, Santiago’s already fractures life gets even more so when a young boy called Enrique bursts in claiming to be his half-brother with his estranged mother living in Madrid as well.

That might sound like much but trust me, it’s way too much, the story is spread way too thin across all fronts that I’m not 100% sure what the main focus is supposed to be. I get that everything is supposed to be piling onto Santiago and throw him off his game with the move to Spain, the turbulence with Roz, the frustration about not playing, his brother, his mother and even a bad ankle sprain throw in just for good measure. But it’s all too much and nothing gets the focus it deserves aside from the football, which fine its a football movie but the first film managed tell a coherent story that used football as a placeholder whilst the important bit regarding Santiago’s rise was the focal point.

I’ll give you an example, this film is under two hours long, by the hour mark Santiago and Enrique are only on their second scene together. With the mother storyline being arguably the most important I’d figured that get the most focus but in truth it’s a sideline story in a film of nothing but sideline stories. What’s worse is that they were obviously trying to sow seeds to be planted in the next film since absolutely fucking nothing is resolved by the end... and I already know that the next film has fuck all to do with Santiago. Now you can argue that I can’t judge this film too harshly since it did hope to pay-off all its set-up in the next one, but to date I have two points, firstly I can still criticise the film for not delivering, and secondly, even if we did have pay-off this film is still a fucking mess.

Which brings us to the characters, and most of them suffer the same fate, with no focus a lot of them are just scattered waiting for a third act that never comes. This hurts Roz the most, played again by Anna Friel, who is actually given something to work with, with Santiago in Spain getting up to who knows what her frustrations at their failing relationship is tangible but without resolution – especially after a late plot-twist which raises a whole bunch of questions about her character – she’s doesn’t get to move beyond the girlfriend role anymore than she did last time.

Stephen Dillane also returns as Santiago’s agent Glen Foy for all of about three scenes before being unceremoniously dropped, again there seems to be potential for his return in the next film but even then having him as a bit part here after being so paramount to Santiago’s success in the last film is a dick-move. Gavin Harris has it a little better since he’s with Santiago for most of the film in Madrid dealing with bad investments and the fact that he’s a shite player but honestly he feels relegated towards comic relief more than anything else. Which now that I think about it wasn’t actually a bad thing because we needed some levity in what is otherwise an overly serious slog.

And the biggest need for that levity is because of Santiago, played again by Kuno Baker. I liked Santiago in the first film, he was charming without being pushy, talented without being arrogant, there was something quite easy to like about him. Here he’s a cunt. I mean he’s a Grade-A, genuine article dickhead for almost the two hour runtime to the point where I think this is one of the biggest cases of character assassinations I’ve seen for a long time.

I was on board with him at the start, the move to Real Madrid was sudden on him and Roz and I could see the tension but I could forgive him because it’s Real Fucking Madrid and the story needed some narrative push. But then he just got worse and worse, spending money in Spain without talking to Roz, arguing with her over trivial bullshit, arguing with Glen about doing fucking Tofu adverts, he’s belligerent and dickish and not at all like the underdog hero we knew last time. And I know, this time Santiago had a lot working against him and I know that frustration can bring out the worst in us, but there was no middle ground, there wasn’t enough of the Santiago we knew and loved in the first film to justify him turning into this prick. Sure he tries to redeem himself at the end after a long overdue heart-to-heart but it’s all window-dressing without anything to back it up.

Funnily enough, in a turn from the last film which was saved by a decent story and likeable character, here the crap story and unlikeable characters are saved by a more competent director, this time Jaume Collett-Serra, a man who I’ve had my ups – The Shallows is a solid shark attack movie – and downs with – Unknown is one of Liam Neeson’s most forgettable 2010s action movies – but at least he doesn’t feel like a name for committee’s sake. For starters the actual football matches have a little bit more energy to them, you could sense the aggravation that both Santiago and Harris had with them not playing to their high standards and that reflecting in their short tempers on, and sometimes off, the pitch.

And I’ll admit it right here and now, for as little as I cared about the rest of the story, the final 20 minutes against Arsenal, I definitely felt the tension as Madrid made mistake after mistake only to have a comeback with the longest four minutes I’ve felt in ages. I fully appreciate the film for actually delivering some honest feeling of hopelessness and the rebound was more than enough to make it worthwhile.

Outside of the football there was some decent stuff to help the rest of the film, when Enrique steals Santiago’s car goes from funny hi-jinks to proper fear once it hits you that Enrique is a goddamn 10 year old and can’t drive. The moments between Santiago and Roz where you can see the cracks forming are well put-together and the potential for tragedy is there, it’s just undercut by the writing. And as mentioned before, Gavin brings in some much needed chuckles including a couple interviews where he gives the most generic footballer answers to everything which even as an outsider I could appreciate.

To put a bow on the whole thing, Goal 2 isn’t so much a bad film, as it is a disappointment, as well as being a bad film. The only thing I can praise is Gavin being hilarious and Serra’s direction managing to ease out as much emotion as it can from the mess of the script. Otherwise the story has 100 different side-plots but nothing to actively focus on and drive it forward, not that it has any reason to since it ends on a cliff-hanger we’re never going to see resolved, the supporting cast are thrown to the sidelines with nothing to work with while Santiago is given too much to work with and comes off as an arrogant tosser because of it. I was thinking giving it a 5 but it’s left too much of a bad taste in my mouth.

4.5/10