Saipan

Finally, someone has returned to The Damned United’s cunning formula for a good football movie: don’t show any football.

Instead of glorifying men at the top of their game (well, at least Keane), it’s a fascinating, funny, and smart breakdown of how one argument served as a microcosm for centuries of conflict, cultural values, and men’s egos.

Even those with little interest in the beautiful game should be entertained by Saipan, a breezily engaging narrative.

Hardwicke and Coogan are tremendously talented actors who give Roy and Mick, respectively, a story worth exploring.

It’s a watchable national identity crisis in microcosm.

For all the good work, however, the film fails to fully capture the madness of the response at home.

Both actors are superb, but the problem is that history isn’t really on their side. The incidents depicted in “Saipan” were dramatic in 2002, especially in the sports arena, and to a fixated Irish public who took sides. But two decades later, it all lands with a thud.