Director: Julian Farino
Stars: Toby Jones, Gemma Jones, Tony Curran, Nicholas Gleaves, Greg McHugh, and some of their real life counterparts.
Neil Baldwin (Jones) is considered to have learning difficulties, although no-one actually confronts this issue directly. It doesn’t affect his life, however, for he approaches situations with a hopeful outlook. He joins a circus, becomes a greeter to students at Keele university, and even gets to work for his beloved Stoke City FC. It’s a bit like Forrest Gump, but it’s about a real person, and it’s set in Stoke.
Marvellous is an absolutely fantastic film. It’s a sharp look at a man’s life, a man who most people probably have never heard of, I certainly hadn’t, and yet he’s lived a full life and accomplished things that many of us never will. He holds an innocent, some would even say naive, view of the world. If a bad thing happens, well, no worries, something else will turn up and someone will help him out. I don’t think everyone should adopt this attitude because on the whole it’s probably not a reliable way to live, yet it worked for him.
A lot of our fiction seems to be focused on the dark shades of grey, and aim to be gritty and ‘realistic’. Then along comes a film like Marvellous and it just shows that you don’t have to descend into despair to depict a life. I absolutely love this film, if that’s not clear by now, and I’m not even going to wait until the end of the review to suggest that you should seek this one out.
Jones is one of the most underrated actors out there and he’s brilliant in this role, as are the supporting cast. But the film also breaks the fourth wall as the fictional Baldwin interacts with the real Baldwin, just to make sure that things really happened that way. It’s a nice touch and these quirky asides fit the tone of the film well. There are also some dramatic moments, which help contrast the overall message of the film, but it doesn’t dilute the general theme that you should be nice and approach life with a positive outlook, because if you do it’s likely that good things are going to happen to you.
Now, that does seem trite and simplistic as a philosophy to life, but the fact this movie is based on a real person lends it credence. This is one of those films that cannot fail at cheering you up. It was only a tv movie but I think it’s a shame that this hasn’t seen wider distribution. It’s one that I highly recommend, it’s simply a wonderful, lovely film, and the kind that you don’t really see too many of nowadays.