he plays donald crowhurst, an eccentric from devon. old boat and is about to enter a round the world yacht race. he decides to do it on his own, although he has a happy marriage with rachel weisz and kids and he decides to do this in an ealing—esque spirit of the little man taking on the world. so he's inventing it and getting sponsorship from a local car dealer played by ken stott and getting sponsorship from tinned soup firms and rum firms, and then he sets sail up off on his race and it becomes a totally different movie. it becomes profound and moving and mystical and perplexing. why is this man taking on this challenge? and then, i mean, it's a true life tale so i do not want to tell people what happens, even though they can look it up and find out, but what happens is extremely strange. the film struggles to take that on board. meanwhile, colin firth does some of the best acting in years. he's really challenged by this. it might be something to do with the water. it brings the best out of colin. fascinating! i'm sensing it wasn't