What does it mean to be beautiful? In Western culture, that answer is usually quite literally skin deep. More broadly, we attribute beauty to anything that we perceive with our eyes as being physically attractive. God sees things differently. Indeed, He sees infinitely more than we do. The last couple sentences of 1 Samuel 16:7 read, “God does not see as a mortal, who sees the appearance. The Lord looks into the heart.” Apropos of today’s film, The Beautiful Game (2024), many people will look at the unhoused, maybe someone panhandling next to a busy road, and say to themselves, “That guy (or gal) is only going to spend that money on alcohol,” or worse. In other words, those who write off the homeless person in these terms miss the beauty that God knows is in that soul. There is a story behind everyone that demands respect, and these are the kinds of things I am going to talk about with this review.

The Beautiful Game follows Mal Bradley (Bill Nighy), the longtime manager of England’s team for the Homeless World Cup, as he prepares another group of players for the international street-football tournament in Rome. Mal encounters Vinny Walker (Micheal Ward), a gifted but bitter footballer who interferes with a children’s practice and clearly knows the game better than most. Mal introduces him to his team and invites him to Rome, but Vinny is offended when he realizes that every participant in the tournament has experienced homelessness. He insists that he does not belong among them, even though Mal soon discovers that Vinny has been living in his car. Vinny is also struggling to maintain a relationship with his young daughter, Evie (Beckett Handley), and his former partner, Ellie (Jessye Romeo), while clinging to memories of a promising football career that never materialized. He ultimately joins Mal’s team, whose members include recovering heroin addict Nathan (Callum Scott Howells), gambling addict Kevin (Tom Vaughan-Lawlor), Jason (Sheyi Cole), Cal (Kit Young), and Aldar (Robin Nazari), a Kurdish refugee from Syria. Once in Rome, Vinny remains aloof, even refusing to sleep in the room he shares with Nathan after discovering the latter takes methadone. England receives an automatic victory when South Africa fails to arrive for their opening match because one of its players, a Zimbabwean refugee, encounters visa problems. Vinny then helps England defeat Portugal, displaying the talent that makes Mal believe they can finally win the tournament. South Africa eventually arrives, led by the irrepressible Sister Protasia (Susan Wokoma), a nun who persuades Vinny to agree to replay the match England had won by forfeit. His teammates are initially furious, but while searching Rome for Vinny after he walks away from an argument, they begin enjoying the city together. Cal finds Vinny and bonds with him over fatherhood, and the team ultimately agrees that playing South Africa is the fair thing to do. England loses the rematch, during which Nathan struggles badly after failing to take his methadone properly. Vinny is particularly harsh with him, and Nathan later returns to England to recover with the support available there. England must consequently defeat Japan by eight goals to advance. The Japanese team, composed largely of older players who are simply delighted to be in Rome, hopes only to score a goal. England wins by enough to progress, while Japan scores twice and celebrates its accomplishment anyway. Away from the field, Jason awkwardly pursues American player Rosita Hernandez (Cristina Rodlo), initially offending her before apologizing with the unusual gift of a salmon. Rosita reveals that she is a Dreamer whose future in the United States is uncertain and hopes her performance will attract a college scout. England defeats Mexico in the quarterfinals and faces Italy in the semifinal. Aldar initially refuses to play because Italy’s captain, Joram, is a Turkmen Syrian, reopening painful divisions from the war that destroyed Aldar’s hometown and killed his family. He eventually enters the match, but England loses on penalties. Back at their accommodations, frustration erupts. Vinny cruelly defines his teammates by the circumstances that led to their homelessness, only for Aldar to remind him that those labels describe who they were, not necessarily who they are. Aldar explains that before becoming a refugee, he was a barber and hopes to be one again. Vinny’s shame intensifies when Evie calls and proudly tells him that she spoke at school about her father competing in the Homeless World Cup. Instead of sharing her pride, Vinny is humiliated that she has publicly identified him as homeless and lashes out at everyone. It is finally revealed that he had once been on the books at West Ham United and still defines himself by the professional player he expected to become. Mal later tells tournament organizer Gabriella (Valeria Golino) that he had personally scouted Vinny when the boy was twelve. Vinny had extraordinary promise but eventually failed to make the grade, and Mal has long felt some responsibility for how completely that rejection shattered him. England must still play the United States for third place, but Vinny stays away until the match is already underway. His teammates win without him, while Rosita learns that she has been scouted by the University of Colorado. Sister Protasia then offers Vinny an unexpected second chance: South Africa’s star striker Samson is injured, and tournament rules allow her to recruit a replacement for the final against Italy. Vinny initially refuses, but Sister Protasia tells him that people do not save themselves, they save one another. Now there is a Catholic message if I ever heard one. At any rate, Vinny accepts, joins South Africa, and helps them win the Homeless World Cup. Afterward, Vinny apologizes to Mal, who shows him the old scouting report proving that Mal had recognized his talent as a child. Rather than regarding his failed professional career as proof that he was worthless, Vinny is moved to learn that he really had been as good as he remembered. Back in England, he gives Nathan’s mother the medal intended for Nathan and joins Mal in preparing the next team for the Homeless World Cup. Vinny tells the new players that the competition is not really about medals but about belonging to something again, passing along the second chance that Mal and his teammates gave him.

Second chances are just one of the many Catholic themes I could get into in talking about The Beautiful Game. Actually, God gives us more than second chances when it comes to reconciling with Him and, hopefully, spending eternity in Heaven, for as Matthew 18:21-22 says, “Then Peter approaching asked him, ‘Lord, if my brother sins against me, how often must I forgive him? As many as seven times?’ [22] Jesus answered, ‘I say to you, not seven times but seventy-seven times.’” Forgiveness is a cornerstone of Catholicism, which is why Reconciliation is one of the Seven Sacraments. We are sinners in this broken world, and if we did not have a way of being contrite before God and receiving His forgiveness, there would be no hope for humanity. Still, arguably the thing that is going to lead to the downfall of humanity is pride. It is what the Church refers to as one of the seven capital sins or cardinal vices. At the same time, there will be those who say that pride is not always a bad thing. There is some truth to this statement. There is nothing wrong with taking legitimate satisfaction in good work or in treating your fellow human beings with dignity and respect, provided that gratitude and humility remain at the center. We can see this with Rosita, who is doing something not simply because she is seeking personal accolades and prizes. Rather, she is representing her family and their hope for a better future for herself. Pride becomes sinful when it is excessive and self-inflated, causing us to place ourselves above others or even above God. This describes many of Vinny’s actions. Early on, he is blunt in telling his supposed teammates that he is better than them. In short, he is ignoring reality. The truth is that he is just as homeless as the others, and that while his story might be different in the particulars, it has all led them to the same place. He spends so much time clinging to what he could have been, a professional soccer player, rather than focusing on what he has become. Ultimately, it is others who help him realize these mistakes. In this vein, Sister Protasia has a wonderful line when she says that nobody saves themselves, we save each other. From a Catholic perspective, salvation itself comes from God, but He routinely works through other people to extend His grace, love, and mercy to us. That is God at work, even if we do not want to acknowledge it.

As a Catholic reviewer watching The Beautiful Game, I was touched on so many levels, which is also God’s work. To have a nun be the coach of the South African team was a treat, and it was sweetened when the tournament is held in the shadow of the Vatican. The Church has a heart for the unhoused, and if you do as well, then you are going to enjoy this movie.