Dedications: My four late friends Rory, Stan, Bryan, Jeff - shine on you crazy diamonds, they would have blogged too. Then theres Garry from Brisbane, Franco in Milan, Mike now in S.F. / my '60s-'80s gang: Ned & Joseph in Ireland; in England: Frank, Des, Guy, Clive, Joe & Joe, Ian, Ivan, Nick, David, Les, Stewart, the 3 Michaels / Catriona, Sally, Monica, Jean, Ella, Anne, Candie / and now: Daryl in N.Y., Jerry, John, Colin, Martin and Donal.

Monday 17 April 2017

The Pass


An odd little drama that barely got a look in last year. My movie buff pal Martin hated it with a vengance .... 

Nineteen-year-old Jason (Russell Tovey) and Ade (Arinze Kene) have been in the Academy of a famous London football club since they were eight years old. It's the night before their first-ever game for the first team - a Champions League match - and they're in a hotel room in Romania. They should be sleeping, but they're over-excited. They skip, fight, mock each other, prepare their kit, watch a teammate's sex tape. And then, out of nowhere, one of them kisses the other. The impact of this 'pass' reverberates through the next ten years of their lives - a decade of fame and failure, secrets and lies, in a sporting world where image is everything.
It began as a play a few years ago, with Russell Tovey who must have had faith in the project as he leads the cast here (and shows off his buff bod), and it does raise important point on the closeted lives some professional sportspeople (not just footballers) must lead, at what cost to themselves, as they marry and create sex-tapes to avoid the rumours, then there are those eager hotel bellboys .... It gets rather tedious as one waits for something to happen, and its not very enjoyable - Tovey's character is totally repellant. Directed by Ben A Williams and script by John Donnelly. 

3 comments:

  1. Hardly even engrossing; a bit hateful actually if well enough acted.

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  2. But why does drama have to be only about nice people? We don't expect to 'like' Macbeth or Shylock, or the Corleone's ...... or some of the nasty characters played by Bette or Joan. Just saying.

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  3. I hope you are not comparing this drivel to Shakesphere or indeed THE GODFATHER?

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