The Damned United is perhaps the most sweeping and engaging romance to ever grace the silver screen. It is as though Titanic and Casablanca made sweet love on a bed of rose petals to bring into this cold, dead world of ours a film of such emotional import so as to render all future romances superfluous. That it takes place on and around an English football pitch is negligible. That a team manager and his assistant play its key figures is also negligible. However, what cannot be denied is director Tom Hooper’s adept revisioning of a family torn apart by obsession then reunited in a classic case of “love conquers all”.

At its outset, the film would have you believe it is all about Brian Clough’s tumultuous 44-day reign as the coach of 1974’s Leeds United. Through flashbacks, it depicts Clough’s rise to fame and praise at the helm of lowly Derby County with a determination to overthrow arguably the best team in Britain at the time in Leeds United. The film documents how Clough’s once-healthy ambition to derail the Yorkshire club deteriorates into a personal vendetta against its manager, Don Revie (Colm Meaney), the man he would eventually replace at Leeds. In capturing the “bon”est of Clough’s “mots” -- expertly delivered by Michael Sheen (whose turns as Tony Blair in The Queen and David Frost in Frost/Nixon have made known his knack for real-life portrayals) -- The Damned United entertains with its look at the sport at its debauched best before the advent of corporate takeovers, endorsement deals, and million-pound players.

But the film has more to it than that. At its heart is the close relationship between Clough and his right-hand man, Peter Taylor (Timothy Spall). To quote Clough, “I'm not equipped to manage successfully without Peter Taylor. I am the shop window and he is the goods in the back.” To refer to the partnership as a marriage would not be entirely inaccurate. From the not-at-all homoerotic undertones of a post-victory waltz to Taylor’s hand-feeding of Clough, Hooper has gone to great lengths to ensure the film is not misunderstood as yet another sports flick -- that the “sports team as family” analogy does not fall on deaf ears. The owner is called an uncle, the coach is a father, and assistants are spouses. In fact, should the film own up to one criticism, it is that the audience is almost bludgeoned with such familial references.

Moreover, we’re left asking whether it is this sense of belonging that was the secret to Clough and Taylor’s successes. Reasoning says it was, as Clough’s failure at Leeds could be chocked up to Taylor’s absence on the bench. But the film never reveals its thoughts on the matter. Afterall, sport’s greatest seduction is its unpredictability and The Damned United adheres to this, choosing instead to focus on the men involved, Clough and Taylor, who ride that wave of uncertainty -- through the proverbial good times and bad -- as any married couple would do.