Fran The Man

The Plot: Assistant football manager Fran (Darragh Humphreys) is in charge of the local Sallynoggin football team, along with his lawyer Jim (Ardal O’Hanlon). They’re a scrappy team that’s not on anybody’s radar but they come to the fore when they’re picked to play against the top team, Shamrock Rovers. It’s a fait accompli as far as the football pundits are concerned, with rumours of a crushing 5 – 0 defeat. This leads Fran to investigate a possible match fix amongst his players, with Gardai detectives Nolan (Risteard Cooper) and Clancy (Toni O’Rourke) sniffing around him…

The Verdict: Football films are a funny old game. Some of them are never quite sure where to stick the cinematic ball or worse, score spectacular own goals. It’s refreshing then to find a film about the beautiful game that is as much about the off-field action as it is about the on-field action – balancing out any such concerns that it’s going to lean too much one way or another. Irish dramedy Fran The Man is based on a 2009 TV short series, but it doesn’t appear to be a prerequisite to have seen it. The plot is straightforward enough, charting the build up to the big match between the no-hopers and the all-hopers. It starts with a televised seeding event featuring Fran, George Hamilton and Brian Kerr that quickly sets the tone of what’s about to come. Fran finds infamy as he throws a wobbler on live TV, but that’s just in a day’s work for him.

Filmed in a mockumentary style a la This Is Spinal Tap, Fran The Man quickly establishes that Fran isn’t the brightest card in the pack but he’s at least the most earnest. He’s dogged by controversy, but brushes it off as he believes in himself and his abilities to pull his team together. The script by Richie Conroy walks a fine line on the goal line, with trip hazards aplenty. There’s a much bigger story with international proportions going on in the background, but it’s only small stuff to Fran. Why are people in faraway countries suddenly interested in his little team? The Gardai detectives are keen to nail either him or his team members for fraud, but they need him to co-operate. There are several swirling sub-plots (Eddie Marsan pops up briefly as a whistleblower), but they all work to complement and drive forward Fran’s storyline so that it delivers the goods.

Conroy and his director Stephen Bradley (returning to directing after 11 years) position all their players on the field to entertaining effect as the hapless Fran is in over his head and out of his league. The script and direction is particularly solid in the way that it deftly handles the comedic potential of this underdog situation combined with the very real problem of match fixing – football is not alone in this shady game. Bradley could have just gone for a straight-out football comedy given the film crew following Fran around, but adding a dramatic dimension not only strengthens its ability to perform effectively as a film but also heightens the comedy. It’s a tricky balance to achieve, but dribbling around it carefully results in an all-round winner. A shout-out to Darragh Humphreys too who nails that Dublin sense of humour while consistently keeping Fran on the audience’s side rather than the offside. Fran The Man not only shoots but scores and is an unexpected delight from start to finish. 84 minutes of time well spent that’s worth cheering from the sidelines.

Rating: 4 / 5

Review by Gareth O’Connor