Screens at the Little Theatre on March 18 at 1.30 p.m. Blessed with silky football skills 12-year-old Remco looks destined to attain his dream of wearing the hallowed orange shirt of Holland.He even has an equally fanatical father to spur him on — one of those touchline ranters who give soccer moms and dads a bad name. However the stuffing is knocked out of Remco when the shouting stops forever one fateful day when his dad Erik suffers a heart attack.

Suddenly the lad has a lot to contend with. He has to ward off doctors telling him to miss a crucial selection game after he suffers a potentially career-threatening ankle injury.

And he has to fend off the amorous intentions of a schoolmate who doesn’t seem to understand kissing is something only done between consenting teammates after a goal has been scored. It is all too much for Remco who jacks it in football before his Dad reappears in his imagination, courtesy of some voodoo conjured up by his teammate Winston’s strange relatives. And soon Erik is back urging him to greater heights in his inimitable tactless way.

It is all predictable but nevertheless watchable stuff. As a feel-good kids movie it does exactly what it says on the tin.

As a football fan it pushed all my buttons through its 90 minutes (nice touch that) and it helps that the child actor can actually play the game.

I doubt whether you have to be a football fanatic to enjoy it — you find yourself rooting for the child even though he behaves really quite badly to attain his dream. Although Arend, the awful accountant who becomes the new man in Remko’s mums’ life but who doesn’t seem to know Holland play in orange, probably deserves everything he gets.

There’s a smattering of humour, some touching scenes with the younger sister and all the typical Dutch scenery you’d expect, complete with dams, cobblestones and bicycles.

In the end I defy anyone not to be gripped, however corny the theme. No wonder it has picked up a host of awards in Europe and Tokyo although the home win in the Netherlands Film Festival was probably something of a given.

It all builds to an inevitable climax although the final scenes are slightly underplayed. The adult in me applauded that.

However the 12-year-old boy inside me could have done with a 20-minute action sequence complete with Remko grabbing a spectacular hat-trick — preferably against Argentina, Germany or Scotland or all three.