Roberts dabbles in magical realism, such as when Flitcroft imagines the Earth is a golf ball he’s orbiting. Coyote to Rylance’s Roadrunner.įlitcroft’s story was wild, but there’s a much crazier movie in here that “The Phantom of the Open” hints at but never fully embraces. Meanwhile, Rhys Ifans is singularly smug and villainous as the head of the British Open who’s constantly chasing Flitcroft out he’s the Wile E. The fact that she knows even less about golf is played for simple laughs. Aside from a few tender moments between her and Rylance, she’s frustratingly stuck functioning as the doting, supportive wife, and not much else. Could Flitcroft really have been so irrepressibly optimistic? A suspension of disbelief in his childlike innocence only goes so far. He’s just super sunny and adorable in every circumstance. His thick accent does much of the acting for him, with a healthy sprinkling of quirks and tics. But what was it about this victory in this sport that was so transfixing? That crucial piece to understanding him feels missing without this nugget of character development, “The Phantom of the Open” is just an airy, formulaic lark, with an especially mannered Rylance performance at the center. Why does golf, of all activities, become his sudden obsession? We see him witness Tom Watson winning the Open on television in 1975. And he became a celebrated figure in the process.īut director Craig Roberts-working from a script by Simon Farnaby, based on Farnaby and Scott Murray’s biography of Flitcroft-never really gets to the heart of Flitcroft’s pursuit. He just wanted to play golf-something he’d never actually done in his life. He didn’t know it was wrong, the film suggests. His sweetly adoring wife, Jean ( Sally Hawkins), even helped him with this task, benignly making up answers to questions about his handicap and such. He faked his way into the prestigious tournament by fudging the paperwork, albeit in good-natured fashion.

He was a crane operator at a shipyard in working-class Barrow-in-Furness.

Mark Rylance dons a colorful argyle vest and jaunty red bucket hat to play Maurice Flitcroft, who infamously shot the worst round in British Open history in 1976.

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