by Alireza Hatamvand
Worth: $15.00
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
Cast:
Darragh Humphreys, Ardal O’Hanlon, Amy Huberman, Risteárd Cooper
Intro:
… a carefully made, genuinely entertaining film, smoothly combining sports and comedy.
Sports films, especially comedies, are often trapped in the same patterns. You know the type: an underdog team chasing big dreams, endless pep talks, and endings that are a little too perfectly happy. The good news for fans of the genre is that director Stephen Bradley and his collaborators have created something that clearly stands apart from similar films.
Fran the Man begins with lower-division football club St. Peter’s Celtic, which, in its first-ever appearance in the FAI Cup, must face the most decorated team in Ireland. The extreme imbalance between the two sides quickly makes the match a favourite target for betting markets. Two investigators, assigned to detect suspicious activity around match-fixing, enter the club and inform the assistant coach, Frank Costello, nicknamed Fran, of their concerns. Their conversations push Fran to watch his players more closely, hoping to identify anyone trying to influence the outcome in favour of the betting syndicates.
The filmmakers’ most significant choice is employing a mockumentary style for the film. It doesn’t go to extremes in terms of shot design or editing to make the entire film look strictly documentary-like, but even a moderate approach is enough to pull the viewer closer into its world. Everything else in the film is built upon this mockumentary foundation.
Much of the film’s success must be credited to the character of Fran. He is crafted with remarkable precision — just clueless enough and just clever enough — to fit perfectly into a comedy that nevertheless maintains a baseline of realism, especially given the subject matter. This is something, for example, that Ted Lasso never quite achieved. While Ted is a very likable character, the series places him — with far less football knowledge than Fran — at the highest level of the sport and still manages to give him sporting success. Fran the Man refuses to take that route.
And of course, the film owes much of Fran’s charm to Darragh Humphreys’ performance. Humphreys clearly understood the nuances of this character and plays him as if he really were standing in front of a documentary camera.
One notable strength is that the film doesn’t stay too long in one place. It doesn’t depend on constant mockumentary-style humour, steering clear of the familiar formula for easy laughs. Instead, the humour feels fresh, subtle, and varied, while the drama remains grounded and the plot flows smoothly. The film wraps up with an ending that is both satisfying and consistent with its own style — rare for sports comedies.
Fran the Man is a carefully made, genuinely entertaining film, smoothly combining sports and comedy.
