Reuters Soccer Blog
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Clough film is enjoyable but a clear piece of fiction
Michael Sheen has successfully impersonated Tony Blair on television and in the film “The Queen” followed by a less convincing portrait of David Frost in “Frost/Nixon”.
He can now be viewed in British cinemas playing charasmatic English soccer manager Brian Clough during his 44 nightmare days at Leeds United in the film based on the 2006 novel “The Damned United”.
As always Sheen gets the accent spot on and the mannerisms seem accurate in a production gentler in tone than David Peace’s novel, praised by one reviewer as “probably the best novel ever written about sport”.
The period detail – England in 1974 — is acutely observed and the football scenes merge appropriately grainy television footage of the time with inevitably less convincing shots of actors playing footballers to suspend skilfully enough the disbelief of all but the most critical audiences.
