Marvellous (2014)
It seems like you only need to put Toby Jones in a movie to make it great. I even loved his appearance in Captain America: The Winter Soldier. He's played a sound engineer, a Nazi scientist, a spy and Alfred Hitchcock and he brings something special to his roles every time.
In the tv film "Marvellous" Toby Jones plays a man who is still living, putting the figure of Neil Baldwin in the same rank as Stephen Hawking, David Helfgott, Mark Zuckerberg, and Margaret Thatcher. What's more, however, he actually shows up occasionally to make a comment!
There have been attempts in the past to show that people with mental illness often simply have a different approach to life rather than being incapable. However, Marvellous shows a figure whose mental illness seems to give him a better approach to life than most and who finds doors open for him as a result.
Whether it's his mental illness, his personality or a weird alchemy when combining them, he presents an endearing sense of humour and finds it very easy to make friends. That he or she is "a good friend of mine” is a regular refrain throughout the film.
Neil Baldwin lives with his mother and relies on her for support. He shares her passion for religion, for football, but not for healthy eating. Early on, some priests feel a little awkward that he sees both the hierarchy of the priesthood and of Stoke City Football Club to be equivalent.
This is a wonderful story, well-served by its excellent leading man.
A+