Sixty Six
Apparently British director Paul Weiland felt like he'd have it too easy selling a film about a London boy's bar mitzvah to gentile audiences everywhere. So he made things more challenging by throwing World Cup soccer into the mix, just daring American moviegoers to respond with a yawn. In the end, though, Weiland ("Made of Honor") pours so much heart into his autobiographically "true-ish" story that accessibility is a nonissue.
The '60s-set film casts newcomer Gregg Sulkin as 12-year-old Bernie Rubens, a fretful, bespectacled kid who goes chronically unnoticed at school and at home, and views his imminent rite of passage as the party-down occasion that's finally going to make him a somebody. So while Bernie's dad, Manny (Eddie Marsan, "Vera Drake"), is preoccupied with his floundering grocery shop, and mom Esther (Helena Bonham Carter) tends to the rest of the family's considerable needs, Bernie holes up in the shed, eagerly making seating charts and practicing his mixology.
There's just one hitch: Bernie's big day has been penciled in for July 30, the date of the World Cup final. And while it's the longest of long shots that England's underdog team will make it that far and thereby create a party-killing conflict, well, you never know. (Actually, Brits know full well how this plot thread turns out: 1966 marked their footballers' lone World Cup title, a sports fact that's a spoiler only for us neophyte, soccer-dabbling Americans.) Bernie amusingly watches England's march to glory with a permanent look of distress on his face, as if the gastrointestinal curse he desperately wishes on the team has somehow backfired.
It's Marsan's work as doleful Manny that gives the proceedings a header from "Sixteen Candles" territory into deeper drama. There's an especially poignant moment when, distraught over bad fortune, Manny groundlessly accuses Esther of emotional infidelity. She indignantly replies that she hasn't stayed with him all these years for his glamorous lifestyle - the partial reference to his stubby looks seemingly implied, and very much a case of character actor Marsan taking one for the team.
He might be a little too good at bringing us down, actually. After a point, the Rubenses' laments start to feel draining. But it's also an effective setup for the film's welcome indulgence in rah-rah sports cliche at the finish. And while he's at it, Weiland tosses in a bit of last-minute profundity about how this was a life-changing experience for Bernie after all. Even here, the film scores.
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