Goal 2 Movie Review

Essay by daniel_510High School, 12th gradeB+, April 2008

download word file, 5 pages 0.0

Goal 2: Living the Dream, is a movie directed by Jaume Collet- Serra, and it was mainly filmed in Spain, specifically in Madrid and some parts have been filmed in England in Athens. It was filmed between 2005 and 2006 and it was released on February 9, 2007. The main characters are Santiago Nunez (Kuno Becker), Gavin Harris (Alessandro Nivola), and Glen Foy (Stephen Dillane). However this movie is special, because it stars and shows appearances of real soccer players. The film starts at the beginning of the 2005/2006 “La Liga” in which Barcelona defeats Real Madrid by three goals in the Bernabeu, Real Madrid’s home stadium. When Real Madrid fails to win against their main rivals, Real Madrid coach swaps Santiago Nunez, with Michael Owen. When he is transferred, he is first laid on the bench, and it isn’t paid much attention. However, when he is substituted on the second half in a match against Olympiakos, he plays well, and enters into the plans of his coach.

Matters would not be easy for Santiago since he is surrounded by glory until he injures himself and then finds that he has an unknown family from Mexico living in Spain. Subsequent actions led him to demise both in the club and in his personal life since Roz, his wife even believes that he is cheating on her. However, after his supposed brother Enrique, crashes his Lamborghini, and he spends a night in jail. He is then later reincorporated into the squad helping score the winning goal against Arsenal in the UEFA Champions League.

Through the movie, Jaume Collet- Serra is trying to show the viewer the personal life of soccer players. He portrays the life of the stars such as one believes it, lavish parties, luxurious car, important friends, and tough training. However, the director of this film tries to show that even though soccer players are loved and are often seen as unbreakable, in fact they are just alike us. Through Santiago Nunez, the director portrays us a typical soccer player, an immigrant from South America, whom starts as a poor athlete to becoming a rich and prestigious one. However, through the movie, we both see the professional and the personal life of the soccer players. In the case of Santiago Nunez, he has lived all his life with his father and grandmother whom have supported him even though they thought he would not have future in soccer. Soon, as he became popular, another character emerged; his mother. Before he thought that his mother had died, but he realized that her mother immigrated to Spain because she believed life in South America was not suitable for her. As a result, a theme of conditional love emerged. Before his mother did not contact Santiago, but after he moved to Madrid and became famous she contacted him. This is an important theme that is portrayed in the movie that also applies to real life. Many famous people often question their “friends” because most often they are friends not because whom they are but because what they are. As a result the movie portrays this theme strongly because this is usually part of the soccer player’s life.

The movie has both a dark and bright tone. At the start of the movie, the tone is dark because Real Madrid lost is in a losing streak and it seems that they would be unable to win “La Liga.” However the movie soon lights up when Santiago Nunez is transferred into Real Madrid and is successful from the start. The tone soon starts to change itself again when Santiago gets injured and meets his supposed brother, Enrique. Here, the tone changes to a somewhat eccentric tone because Santiago is somewhat happy to know that he does in fact have a mother and brother, but he is fearful of showing this to the public, and especially to his father. However, in the end when Santiago scores the winning goal against Arsenal, he reconciles with his mother and brother and the tone ends in a very cheerful and happy one.

This movie is one or perhaps the best soccer movie there has been. This is not because the actors are good, or because it has a good plot, but rather because it has many scenes in which real soccer players are portrayed and are intertwined with the cast seemliness. The Signature Shot, or the best shot of this movie is the UEFA Champions League final against Arsenal. Despite Real Madrid and Arsenal have never faced in the Finals, the director shows the environment of the Bernabeu before the game, and then shows the real players interacting with the cast. This is what makes this film so special because usually soccer films just show footage, but the cast is never there. However, both in Goal and Goal 2 the characters interact with the real players such as Raul Gonzalez, Beckham, amongst others making the film realistic. Even better is the fact that when playing the soccer match, both the cast and the real players are shown playing together.

One of the aspects that stands the most of the film is the fact that the location is usually the real. For example all of the match footage and the dressing room footage are all recorded in the Bernabeu; I know this for a fact because I have visited the stadium on several occasions. Also, the players train at the real’s club training venue. The directors’ carefulness for such matter does not go unnoticed because soccer fans such as me are always looking for errors and lies within soccer movies. However, details in this movie are excellent and are flawless. However there is one error in the movie that I believe should have been corrected. Santiago Nunez is number 30 in the squad, but in real life, the number 30 is reserved for Real Madrid Castilla or Real Madrid C players. Anyways details in this movie are amongst the best I have seen.

Clearly, Goal 2: Living the Dream by Jaume Collet- Serra is one of the best soccer films there is out there in the market. By intertwining the cast with real life soccer players Collet- Serra has created a movie that represents the typical life of a professional immigrant soccer player. Thus, through the film we realize that the soccer player’s life is not only lavish, but they also need to confront problems just like anyone of us. Therefore, I recommend this movie to anyone out there whom enjoys soccer or who enjoy just about any other sport.

Citations"Goal 2 - official film website." The Film Factory. 14 Apr. 2008 .

"Goal II: Living the Dream (2007)." The Internet Movie Database (IMDb). 14 Apr. 2008 .