Genre: Sports/Drama
Director: Tom Hooper
Writer: Jack Ryder
Cast: Andrew Garfield, Emily Blunt, Vinnie Jones, Matt Smith, Judi Dench, Brandon Mychal Smith, Trevor Jackson, Ki Hong Lee, Ryan Guzman, Katherine Heigl, Patrick Dempsey, Neil Patrick Harris
Plot: A match between Birmingham F.C and Bristol F.C is being played in Birmingham's Stadium. Birmingham F.C had it's fans but for the past two seasons there fan support is incredibly high giving the stadium an electrifying atmosphere. This all happened because of the return of Dean Harthwick (Andrew Garfield) the hometown boy and his phenomenal display of talent for these two years. In this game also he brings back Birmingham from a loss by providing an assist and himself finding the net.
After the match he finds out that he will be named in the England squad, a dream he has been chasing for 12 years. He informs his hard working wife Sarah (Emily Blunt) about the selection on the phone and plan for a small celebration for themselves.
Sarah receives a call from the hospital, Informing her that Dean was involved in an accident. A drunk truck driver rammed his truck into his car.
Dean awakes after two days but he cannot feel his lower body. Sarah sobbingly informs him that his vertebrae is broken and the doctors are not yet sure when you will be able to Stand Back. Dean gets heartbroken realizing he cannot play soccer and tries to fight his body to stand back but he fails and hurts himself.
Week after week passes away with not any significant improvement. Dean starts losing hope that whether he will ever be able to stand but Sarah sees Dean losing faith and decides she will not let him fail and quits her job as an attorney and commit herself fully towards his recovery and him. She finds an eccentric Doctor named Linda (Katherine Heigl) and shifts Dean under her care.
After months Dean finds a ray of hope when he was able to stand for a few seconds. Dr. Linda promises Sarah, Dean will be able to walk and run in 18 months time.
While his recovery continues, his former mentor Joe Healy (Vinnie Jones) reaches out to him offering him a olive branch by giving him a chance to stay in the game he breathes. Joe offers Dean, Assistant Managership of the Club Houston F.C in MLS. The club Joe is managing. He tells them the current assistant manager contract is up after 12 months but Dean rejects his offer and sends him out thinking he is here to just rub on him, for their break up three years back when Dean decided to change his playing style and returned to Birmingham. Sarah sees Joe's offer as a chance to patch up things between them. She convinces Dean to apply for the job. So while his physical recovery continues with great improvement he clears his exam to work as an Assistant Manager.
Dean gets the job and the Harthwicks shifts to Houston, U.S.A. They live beside the Healys where Dean reunites with Joe Healy's mother Jean Healy (Judi Dench) who gives her a earful for not calling her.
On his first week on the job, Dean lock horns with Joe over a potential transfer. Dean wants to bring in Liam Smooth (Brandon Mychal Smith) a US citizen playing in some Australian Club as a Forward, Where as Joe believes they have a great striker in Roderick Snow (Matt Smith) an English citizen and wants to bring in a Brazilian Midfielder. After various arguments and debate Dean is successful in bringing in Liam Smooth and he thinks with Liam in the squad, Snow will be better in Mid-field too which the coaching staff agrees. This move doesn't sits well with Roderick Snow who thinks Dean is just jealous of him and starts a clique against him consisting of defender Tray Jazz (Trevor Jackson), Goalkeeper James Folder (Ryan Guzman) and the charismatic mid-fielder and wannabe rapper Jay Wong (Ki Hong Lee).
Liam's arrival is not well received because of Roderick and his Gang. Dean sees this resentment and plans to dissuade this resentment.
The season begans and the Houston F.C has a start worse than it's past years by losing three straight games. Liam Smooth was a shining star in all the matches but he was mostly left alone by his team in the matches. The critics abhorred the lack of chemistry. While Joe Healy faced the flak of the board and was given an ultimatum. He was being blind to the lack of chemistry and blamed they aren't practicing well and executing the plans well enough. But Dean sees the resentment towards him and his plans, hatch a plan. He took out each day a different member of the clique to spend some personal time.
His first target was Tray Jazz. He took Tray to a public cooking class where he comes clean about what his plans are and what he is trying to achieve with the club. He put his heart out which Jazz saw and told they are acting out because of Snow who sees Dean as a competitor. The next day he spend his time with James Folder in a Dance Club where the same story repeated. The last one he took out was Jay Wong they both participated in a Karaoke Party where the same beats repeated. Dean gathered the information and come to the conclusion Roderick Snow has a beef with him for no reason. He wanted to clear the air between them.
Joe was way tensed when the next match began but after a very close fight they came through and registered their first win. Everybody saw that they were a bit more passes towards Liam but still a reluctance was present.
Joe boasted and took all the credit for the win.
Joe was under the impression his new hard training regime was the reason for their success and started putting more player onto it. While Dean thinking was Chemistry is important for the team to win and hence started to build his way inside the team.
After some more matches and all of them finishing with close wins. The team resentment towards Dean and Liam was mostly finished but Roderick could not take it and he challenged Dean in training which Dean accepted after some reluctance. Dean had a tough start but after some time he was running through him but when he almost got better of him Dean felt a lot of pain in his back and fell down and fainted. When he waked up he was in the hospital where Sarah was fuming over him to do something so risky. Sarah and Dean shares a very emotional moment in the hospital room and they both contemplated their future lying side by side in the bed.
When Dean comes back after his medical leave he sees that the clique has broken but Snow's hatred only rose. With mostly everything on their side Houston F.C went on a wild run, thumping their opposition each match. The only thorn in their side was Roderick Snow who couldn't give a good performance with so much in his head. The teams management decided to give Snow an ultimatum saying he will be dropped as their captain if he doesn't improves his performance. Joe appoints Dean to relay this ultimatum.
Jean Healy organizes a party to celebrate their team success at her house where all the team members are present except for Snow. Sarah makes a toast to everyone. Joe tells everybody that they have a chance to go in the Major Series if they win their last three games. Everybody is enjoying the party when Sarah notices Joe's absence and tries to find him. They found him lying inside his bedroom with blood spurting out of his mouth. Joe is taken to the hospital.
The team and family are informed by Dr. Smith (Patrick Dempsey) that Joe is suffering from Stage 3 cancer. Everybody is shattered by this news. Dean in the start is very taken aback but he finds his senses and drives to meet Snow. Where he confronts him. In a very emotionally driven speech Dean reveals the fall out between him and Joe years ago. He reveals he wanted Snow to play in the mid-field so he has a chance to represent their country England a dream of Dean which never came true and he leaves.
In the next matches, Dean is made the acting manager in absence of Joe and Snow embodies his role as the Box-to-Box mid-fielder and becomes a force to be reckon with. They top their league table and moved towards the Series.
Dean comes to discharge Joe from hospital where Joe reveals that he saw Dean in Roderick and hence supported him, He said he knew he can be a better player by changing his position but he cannot do it by himself and hence he brought Dean in. He congratulated him on his success and they met with Dr. Smith to facilitate the discharge where we see Dr. James (Neil Patrick Harris) hitting on Dr. Smith in full Barney Stinson style.
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