There's Only One Jimmy Grimble

ON the evidence of past crimes in the name of football flicks, the prospect of encountering even one Jimmy Grimble might have been one too many.

Thankfully, John Hay's charming little film rises above such misdemeanours as Escape To Victory, When Saturday Comes and this year's risible biopic Best, in which John Lynch pretended he was genius Georgie - a fantasy surely best left behind in the school playground.

Football movies traditionally flounder on the pitch, where choreographed attempts to replicate the game's ebb and flow reduce it to a clumsy version of ballet. However, the likes of Kes, Gregory's Girl and Fever Pitch have not sought to match Match Of The Day. Childhood fantasy has been at the root of such films, removing the need for reality in favour of comic-book drama in the bygone style of Roy Of The Rovers.

There's Only One Jimmy Grimble joins that fantasy football league, being the Boy's Own tale of Mancunian weakling Jimmy learning the importance of believing in himself. Life isn't easy for the insecure 15 year old: it's always grim up north; he's bullied by the Beckham-clone star striker; his single mum (Gina McKee) has a new boyfriend from leather hell (Ben Miller); his coach is a dream-shattered ex-pro (Robert Carlyle); his twinkle-toed football skills desert him as soon as he sees a playing field...and he supports Manchester City.

Yet when a homeless old woman gives him a magic pair of boots, young Jimmy (Lewis McKenzie) is suddenly transformed into Colin Bell, Francis Lee and Mike Summerbee rolled into one awkward new hero of the school team.

The story is as old fashioned as the team's Man City strip and as predictable as another Man Utd title success, and yet a combination of McKenzie's honest, heart-felt debut, the committed support of Carlyle, the cosy small-screen directing of Hay, the gentle humour and pathos of Simon Mayle's screenplay and the bleak, grainy camerawork of John De Borman makes There's Only Jimmy Grimble as uplifting as a Cup upset.

One Grimble grumble, however: muddy winter, not shiny summer, should have been the release date.