Cobb is a refreshingly spiky antidote to all the Hollywood paeans to the glory of the game.

Most biopics mistakenly try to take us from cradle to grave and end up skimming the surface. The wisdom of Cobb is that writer-director Ron Shelton knows that the close study of a single day can decode a human life.

Unfortunately, the movie just makes Stump look like a self-important jerk, possibly a bigger jerk than Cobb, and Wuhl's affable, weightless performance doesn't help.

A curiously gripping amalgam of Patton, Citizen Kane and Melvin and Howard.