The Pass

The openly gay Brit actor Russell Tovey (TV's "Looking"), who is currently wowing audiences in London's Royal National Theater in a well-reviewed revival of "Angels in America," gives a tour-de-force performance as a closeted football player in "The Pass."

In possibly a career best, Tovey repeats a role which he first created in the stage play of the same name written by John Donnelly, which was the hit of the 2104 season at the Royal Court Theater. Since then he has not only fine-tuned the character, but he has also buffed up his body, which adds yet another dimension to the piece.

The story plays out in three parts, all of them set in different hotel rooms, which still gives the movie a slightly theatrical feel. In the first act Jason (Tovey) and Ade (Arinze Kene) are two newbie professional footballers who are sharing a room for a night before a big match in Romania. Both are dressed only in their underwear, and they engage in horseplay with a bit of wrestling thrown in, as two best friends would. There is, however, tension in the air since they know that only one of them will get picked to play on the team the following day -- but that is not the only thing that is getting these two young men all hot and bothered.

The second act happens five years later when Jason, now a highly successful and famous footballer, is about to divorce his wife. He has taken a pretty blonde woman back to his hotel suite. Lyndsey Lisa McGrillis has been paid by a tabloid newspaper to get the dirt on Jason, but her scheme doesn't go to plan. When she realizes that her ruse has been discovered and Jason is happy to play along with it, it dawns on her why he wants to prevent the real truth about his situation going public.

The final part takes place another five years later, and this time Jason is in an even grander hotel suite in Manchester, where he has, post-divorce, moved in permanently. In this section, Jason is expecting a guest: Ade, whom he hasn't seen or spoken to since that fateful night in Bucharest ten years earlier. Ade, who has given up playing professional football and is now happily gay and partnered, works as a plumber. He's curious to know why Jason texted an invitation to visit him after all this time. Jason, still calculating and self-loathing -- and now lonely and unhappy, too -- is desperately trying to find the wherewithal to open up about his sexuality and his feelings finally. He thinks that drink and drugs may help (or even abusing the hotel bus boy), but as his social skills fall far short of his ability on the playing field, it looks like he won't score a goal at all tonight.

In this highly homoerotic tale, the near-naked men bare almost everything except the most important things that will always keep them apart. Tovey is pitch-perfect as the confused closet case who knows that if he had made a different choice ten years ago, it would have been the end of his career in what is a very homophobic sport. He shows a remarkable chemistry with the very talented Kene who, like Ade, represents a battle not only against homophobia but racism, too.

This compelling movie -- the feature film directing debut of Ben A. Williams -- should catapult Tovey to mainstream movie stardom. Unlike other Brit stars such as Eddie Redmayne or Benedict Cumberbatch, Tovey is both blue-collar and gay, traits that will secure his status as a gay icon. That's an achievement not to be sniffed at, but he deserves much more than that.