Anything with Sheen, Jim Broadbent, Timothy Spall, and lots of sarcasm sounds good to me. But I'm also glad that Sheen is, to a certain extent, taking over for Hugh Grant as the Dude With An Accent, and that he's actually making movies about the Country From Whence His Accent Came, instead of simply deploying it, along with dimples and hair gel as another weapon in his arsenal. Don't get me wrong--I do like Hugh Grant, and I think he's only become more appealing as an actor as he's settled into his age a bit. But I also really like England, the result of a long-term pen pal from just outside of Manchester who taught me a lot about attitudes towards royalty, holidays overseas, and how to drink beer on New Year's Eve, and I don't actually think Grant's much of an ambassador for the country, dorky-booty-dancing Prime Minister role and all. That role was an American dream of Englishness: hot, and sensitive, and a little bit more assertive than stereotypes suggest the Brits actually are.
Sheen's pugnacious rather than really smooth, and much like John Simm (be still my heart) he looks like a real human being. The Damned United looks like a classic, fun coach-centered sports movie, but with all the great weird touches about class, and money, and hell, Ali calling out Brian Clough for a touch of cross-the-pond bravado that make it English (the movie is a heavily fictionalized account of real events). The more movies like this, or The Queen make it over here, the happier I am. It can only be good for the Special Relationship for us to watch and enjoy movies about, and containing, actual Britons (okay, and Welshmen). Whether it's the travails of coal miners under Margaret Thatcher, gay teenagers in love, or newsmen on the brink, the Brits manage to do a lot of things sincerely and well that we manage to phony up in our attempts or reinterpretations. It's great to see Sheen part of that latest charge, and I can only hope that folks like Simm and Philip Glenister will follow him over.