Set in the grimy North of England we see Jimmy Muir, played by Sean Bean, being discovered by talent scout Pete Postlethwaite to play football for top tier club Sheffield United to escape the drudgery of his working class roots. This is your classic rags to riches story that had some possibility set in the world of football however the script is riddled with cliches, Maria Giese's direction is totally uninspired and the film takes itself way too seriously. On top of that Sean Bean is about 15 years too old to be playing such a character, being 36 at the time, an age when most footballers are thinking about hanging up their boots.
We even get a Rocky style training montage done Yorkshire style in the cold and dank streets of Sheffield that is quite embarrassing and instead of cheering him on we're only inspired to be quietly pleased for Jimmy as he makes his triumphant return to form after messing up his initial trial for the club after going on a drinking binge.
Sean Bean is more at home in meatier roles playing darker characters in blockbusters like Goldeneye, Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones. This film needed a lighter touch from a younger actor who would have been more convincing playing Jimmy Muir, where the taste for glory would have come across as meaning so much more to a younger character.
When Saturday Comes has all the working class cliches of living up North such as rebelling against an abusive father, getting drunk down the local pub, leering at topless women in a strip club, working in a dead end factory job and having the younger brother being unable to escape his roots by working down t'pit.
Both Postlethwaite and Emily Lloyd do their best with the material they are given but it feels like it was made in the early 1970's rather than the mid-90's. No doubt die hard Sheffield United fans will get some pleasure from it but for the rest it's as flat as a warm pint of bitter.
We even get a Rocky style training montage done Yorkshire style in the cold and dank streets of Sheffield that is quite embarrassing and instead of cheering him on we're only inspired to be quietly pleased for Jimmy as he makes his triumphant return to form after messing up his initial trial for the club after going on a drinking binge.
Sean Bean is more at home in meatier roles playing darker characters in blockbusters like Goldeneye, Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones. This film needed a lighter touch from a younger actor who would have been more convincing playing Jimmy Muir, where the taste for glory would have come across as meaning so much more to a younger character.
When Saturday Comes has all the working class cliches of living up North such as rebelling against an abusive father, getting drunk down the local pub, leering at topless women in a strip club, working in a dead end factory job and having the younger brother being unable to escape his roots by working down t'pit.
Both Postlethwaite and Emily Lloyd do their best with the material they are given but it feels like it was made in the early 1970's rather than the mid-90's. No doubt die hard Sheffield United fans will get some pleasure from it but for the rest it's as flat as a warm pint of bitter.