Review: Goon (15) ***

If sport was ever beautiful, it faded just a little in 2011.

Goon is an offbeat comedy based on the incredible true story of a minor league ice hockey player who courted fame for his thuggish conduct.

Adapted from the book by Adam Frattasio and Doug Smith, Michael Dowse’s endearing film is a celebration of an underdog who found his calling by flooring his opponents.

The goon of the title refers to an enforcer, whose role is to protect his team-mates using any part of his battered body that can clatter the opposition at speed.

The brawler in question is dim-witted yet lovable Doug Glatt (Seann William Scott), who works as a bouncer in Orangetown, Massachusetts.

He feels alienated from his Jewish parents (Eugene Levy, Ellen David), who hoped he would train to become a doctor like his gay brother, Ira (David Paetkau).

Doug doesn’t mind about Ira’s sexuality and when he’s sitting in the stands at an ice hockey match and a fellow spectator makes a homophobic jibe, the bouncer shows his displeasure with his fists.

The coach of the local team is impressed with Doug’s fighting skills and best friend Ryan (Jay Baruchel) encourages him to try out as an enforcer.

After just one season, Doug transfers to the Halifax Highlanders in Nova Scotia, where coach Ronnie Hortense (Kim Coates) asks him to protect out-of-form scorer Xavier LaFlamme (Marc-Andre Grondin) against bullying rival Ross Rhea (Liev Schreiber).

Away from the rink, Doug nurtures a crush on Eva (Alison Pill), who by her own admission has few morals and many sexual partners.

She is attracted to this innocent oaf, who is definitely not the sharpest blade on the ice, but she is reluctant to get involved for fear of souring his innate sweetness.

Goon is a pleasant surprise: a macho comedy awash with fisticuffs that slap shots into our affections.

Scott strikes a balance between naivete and brutish physicality, and he catalyses warm screen chemistry with Pill as the bad girl, who finds redemption in Doug’s doe eyes.

“You make me want to stop sleeping with a bunch of guys!” she coos.

Scriptwriters Baruchel and Evan Goldberg sketch characters with affection and gift the ensemble cast sparkling one-liners, which zing through the air like pucks.

The plot stays on its feet, despite a couple of wobbly moments, culminating in a bloodbath during a vital championship game that almost has us cheering from the multiplex stands.

Also Out

Mother and Child (15): Rodrigo Garcia writes and directs this ensemble drama, stitching together the stories of three women who are marked by very different experiences of motherhood.

Hard-nosed attorney Elizabeth (Naomi Watts) has no interest in raising a family, having been given away at birth by the biological mother she never knew. She secures a position at a prestigious firm and begins an affair with married boss Paul (Samuel L Jackson). Then, unthinkably, she falls pregnant with his child. Meanwhile, Elizabeth’s mother Karen (Annette Bening) continues to be haunted by her decision to give away her daughter at the age of 14. With the support of a new man, Paco (Jimmy Smits), she approaches Sister Joanne (Cherry Jones) at the adoption agency to track down her child. Elsewhere, talented baker Lucy (Kerry Washington) is desperate to become a mother but she is unable to fall pregnant with her husband, Joseph (David Ramsey). So they contact Sister Joanne to put themselves forward as potential parents to an unwanted child.

Despair (15): A re-release of Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s 1978 drama with a screenplay by Tom Stoppard, adapted from the novel by Vladimir Nabokov. Russian chocolatier Hermann Hermann (Dirk Bogarde) lives with his wife Lydia (Andrea Ferreol) in 1930s Germany, where his mental state is gradually unravelling as the Nazis rise to power. Convinced that homeless drifter Felix Weber (Klaus Lowitsch) is his doppelganger, Hermann slowly loses his temper with the people around him. As Hermann loosens his grasp on his sanity, he ignores Lydia’s affair with her cousin Ardalion (Volker Spengler) and fixates on a deranged plot that he believes will end all of his woes.