Poor retelling of a great story about courage and resilience. Based on real events, I could let it slide if it was a solid drama that was lacking a bit in the sports department or an excellent sport movie with dramatic elements sort of bolted on around it. Unfortunately, The Match fails in both areas.
Being indie or low-budget doesn't have to mean low quality. It's not even an attention to detail issue. It's just bad. The script is ridiculous, acting was stiff, and direction felt like they had a two-take limit and just took what they got. The two biggest-name actors (Nero and Assante) are in the movie for less than five minutes combined. "The match" itself, which is supposed to be the highlight of such a film, is laughable from a technical perspective. It feels thrown together, shot, and edited in the same afternoon. The choreography is unskilled, uninspired, and amateurish, even though they cast pro footballers.
The rules and equipment are completely wrong for the era. Now, if they had missed by a few years or even a decade, OK fine, whatever, let's not nitpick... but they missed by 70+ years in some cases! It's no exaggeration to say it would be more accurate if characters had cell phones in WWII. That's how far off they missed. Yes, this is a low budget, indie film. Pretty sure they could afford Google and could spare 5 minutes.
2/10 .. Referee, sub please!?
Such a great story deserves to be told in a way that isn't so painful to watch. For example, a dramatized version is told very well in Victory (1981), starring Pele, Sylvester Stallone, Max von Sydow, and Sir Michael Caine (not a lot of people know that). I can't stress enough that you need to go watch that movie instead, especially if you've never seen it before.
