Fran the Man review – Irish football-coach mockumentary gets the fans onside
Spin off from Irish TV comedy doesn’t really raise its game for feature about plucky amateurs taking on a strong teamFran (Darragh Humphreys) is an assistant manager to an underdog football team who have unexpectedly drawn a very good side for a big match. Can he get his boys to where they need to be to deliver a memorable upset? It’s a fairly classic sporting comedy premise, though probably the first time it plays out in an Irish setting. That setting is one of the better things about an otherwise somewhat lacklustre film: the location footage feels authentic and lived-in, in a way the plot doesn’t, though said plot might matter less if the characters were given a bit more room to charm and entertain.Perhaps this is one of those films where you have to be in on the original joke to enjoy it. Based on the football mockumentary series Fran, which ran for a couple of years from 2009 in Ireland, this expanded version doesn’t feel like essential viewing, but presumably diehard fans of the series will be keen to see more of the character. It doesn’t seem all that likely to cross over to a broader crowd, however, with wildly variable and sometimes rather flat acting doing little to welcome newer audiences to the fold. There is also a fairly ropey plot about Interpol investigating match fixing against the backdrop of preparations for a David v Goliath football match which does not exactly prove suspenseful. Continue reading...
