Goal! The Dream Begins (2005)

Release date: 2006-05-12
Country: USA|UK
Language: English|Spanish
Director: Danny Cannon
Production Co: Milkshake Films, Touchstone Pictures, Little Magic Films
Genre: Drama, Romance
Rating: 6.7/10
Length: 1h 58min

Storyline

Santiago's father, Hernan Munez, smuggled his penniless Mexican family over the US border to seek a better, albeit modest future in L.A. Eldest son Santiago dreams of more, like native Angelinos, then joining Hernan's gardening firm. His change arrives when a British ex-pro spots him as an exceptional soccer natural and promises he can arrange a real British talent scout to check him out. Although that falls trough and dad forbids it, Santiago accepts grandma's savings to try out with English premier league club Newcastle. Despite his asthma, he gets in and befriends the freshly transferred, desperately undisciplined bad boy star scorer, party animal Gavin Harris, who becomes his bothersome house-mate, a recipe for trouble and yet each's salvation.

Plot Keywords

montage, drinking, drink, teenage boy, mexican american, mother son relationship, family relationships, subtitled scene, punctuation in title, exclamation point in title, theft, taxi, stadium, single father, shoe, roommate, kiss, sex, death, flash forward

Short Review

The combination of button-pushing uplift, sundry sweeping helicopter shots and a bombastic score that sounds like it came on a free transfer from a Tony Scott movie proves as resistibly synthetic as the CGI-enhanced heroics on the pitch.