Walking into the cinema, I wasn’t sure what to expect from ‘The Phantom of the Open’ & I had never heard of Maurice Flitcroft either. The Phantom Of The Open is directed by Craig Roberts and scripted by Paddington 2 screenwriter Simon Farnaby, based on the book he co-wrote with Scott Murray.

Prior to watching the movie, I watched the trailer, and while this isn’t a movie I would normally make an effort to go see in a cinema, it looked like a funny and interesting movie. And as a fan of the movie ‘Ready Player One’, seeing the familiar face of Mark Rylance appearing in this movie, I figured it was going to be at least worth the watch.

For me, The Phantom Of The Open felt somewhat like a rollercoaster ride of emotions. Based on a remarkable true story, this biopic is centered around Maurice Flitcroft (Mark Rylance) who, with the looming threat of being made redundant from his job, needs to figure out what to do next.

As fate would have it, Maurice accidentally steps on the TV remote that was left on the floor, late one night. As he tries to turn it off, he manages to flick through the entire list of channels available to watch, a massive 3 channels and stumbles across the game of golf.

Flitcroft decides that he wants to take up golf and enter the very prestigious British Open Championship.

Never having played the game and with absolutely no idea how to attain entry in the British Open, he eventually manages to secure a spot in the open thanks to a little bit of ingenuity, fibbing & just plain good luck.

As the story unfolds, and after the highest-scoring round of 18 holes in history at that point, Flitcroft is labelled by the media as ‘the worst golfer in the tournament’s history’. This should have been the end of Flitcroft’s professional golf career, but Maurice was determined to try, try & try again after being banned by the tournament’s stuffy leader, Kieth McKenzie (Rhys Ifans). Rules be damned, Maurice finds a way to re-enter the competition using multiple disguises and aliases with the help of his wife and mates.

To me, Maurice Flitcroft is just a husband & father trying to look after his family and bring his 3 boys up the best way he knows how. His story highlights the fact that as parents, no matter how much we try encouraging our children to aim for the stars, and no matter how much we try to stay positive and see the bright side of everything, which is what Maurice does, we are only really ‘winging it” the majority of the time, and even the most positive person can eventually become defeated.

It is really interesting to see such a contrasting difference between the 3 sons as the sub-plot unfolds as well. The twins are the youngest and thanks to the support and positivity from their parents, set off to attain superstardom as disco dancers as they head around the world. With the same positive upbringing, Mike, Maurice’s step son since a young age, takes a rather different path that sees him out against his father’s exploits as a pro golfer, but rounds out nicely as the story comes together.

If this weren’t a true story, a biopic, The Phantom Of The Open could easily rub a lot of the P.C. public completely the wrong way. The fact this is a true story of one of the most positive & resilient people I have seen or heard of, means that this funny, heartwarming & perhaps even self-reflecting movie, is one such movie that I can confidently recommend adding to your watch list.

The sad fact about today’s society that is highlighted by The Phantom Of The Open, is that in 2022, I believe that Maurice would have ended up on social media, being mocked and ridiculed, rather than celebrated.

Written by: Kurt Frohloff

A Founder of MKAU, a gamer, a family man. I have a love of all things gaming and a wish of mine is to have more time to actually play the games we review here!