If you weren’t around to experience it in real time, it will be hard to grasp how seismic the 2002 FIFA World Cup feud between Republic of Ireland manager Mick McCarthy and volatile star captain Roy Keane was. Ireland had squeaked through to the World Cup, and, before the tournament (which was being held in Japan and South Korea) began, the team went to the tiny tropical island of Saipan to acclimatize, practice and have a little fun. But Keane became increasingly dismayed. He complained about the team’s unpreparedness, the poor facilities, the abysmal condition of the training pitch, and even a training session that didn’t have goalkeepers because they were tired. He quit the team, then changed his mind, then gave a no-holds-barred interview to a newspaper. Tensions boiled over, McCarthy sent Keane home, and a nation was bitterly divided. All this is recounted and dramatized in Saipan, the new film from husband-wife director pair Lisa Barros D’Sa and Glenn Leyburn (Ordinary Love). An exciting and enjoyable film, it details how Ireland’s footballing hopes could derail into a feud that dominated the national conversation.
For Keane (Éanna Hardwicke), a player whose standards were exceptionally high, this was all a matter of professionalism. How could his teammates be playing golf and partying days before the biggest sporting event on the planet? How could McCarthy (Steve Coogan) and the Irish FA support those antics? And why are there no footballs? Seeing news reports of the meticulous planning for England’s tournament only further exasperated the captain. However, Keane is also a man who is full of contradictions. He can be grumpy and tempestuous, individualistic and selfish. He is supposed to be the captain, the leader of his team, and yet he slags them off to the press and complains about every detail. According to McCarthy, he even skipped out of a teammate’s charity match (Keane says he was injured).
Impressively, despite this being a biographical drama with two distinctive and (at least in football circles) well-known figures, there are no broad caricatures here. Hardwicke is outstanding, embodying Keane and all his fascinating contradictions. He fully interrogates and embodies the player’s unapologetic, brusque manner, while also showing his softer side when spending time with wife Theresa (Harriet Cains). But more than anything, Hardwicke proves adept at channeling the anger perpetually simmering in Keane, ready to be let loose like a Celtic Tiger. Meanwhile, Coogan reaches toward and mostly musters the thing about McCarthy that has long made him stand out, even in the world of English association football: his oddness. Fittingly, there’s a little bit of Alan Partridge in his portrayal of a hapless manager who feels hassled and undermined, but who also manages it all with a measure of complacence that his captain lacks.
As for the film itself, Barros D’Sa and Leyburn take a poppy, almost music video-esque approach to Saipan. That means archive footage, abundant montages, quick cuts, MiniDV camera interludes, and a soundtrack that includes eternal earworms from the likes of Oasis and the Stone Roses. There’s a flashiness of style here that the real Keane would probably disapprove of tremendously, but there’s also some justification in it, as the directors attempt to aesthetically invoke the player’s fraught headspace rather than present a more straightforwardly true-life sports drama. And that stylization is a particular boon for a film that manages to be both riveting and uproariously funny at various points. The McCarthy-Keane feud is rendered as an old-as-time tale of steadfast men, a clash of egos that are inflamed by incompetence around them and pride deep within them. But just as football is a game of two halves, there are two sides to every story. Saipan’s savviest move is that though the audience may discern the film’s lean in one particular direction, it remains confident enough not to try to either solve or re-litigate the central conflict, and instead provide viewers the space to pick a side.
Published as part of LFF 2025 — Dispatch 2.
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