The late Brian Clough is an international sports legend, but most Americans have never heard of the man. That ought to change with "The Damned United," an absorbing chronicle of Clough's hubris-induced flameout in 1974 after just 44 days as manager of Leeds United, one of the most successful sides in English Premier League history. So, yeah, our story takes place in the realm of soccer, but - wait; come back! Even if you subscribe to the clichéd Yank notion that proper football is tedious, 90 punishing minutes of jogging, kicking, and more jogging, you should know that very little of this film actually happens on the pitch. More character study than sports flick, "The Damned United" is a cautionary tale, a universal portrait of conceit, comeuppance, and redemption.

When we first meet Clough (Michael Sheen, who played Tony Blair in "The Queen") he's just accepted the highest post at Leeds after astonishing run that saw Derby County, his previous team, rise from the depths of the EPL to the top of it. As cocky as he is charismatic ("I wouldn't say I was the best manager in the country, but I'm in the Top 1"), Clough doesn't seem to be fitted with the humility filter, his troublemaking ying helpfully yanged by the calm demeanor of longtime assistant coach Peter Taylor (Mike Leigh regular Timothy Spall). "The Damned United" watches as Clough alienates Leeds' players, fans, and front office with his smug criticisms and selfish tactics, while flashbacks provide clues as to why Clough harbors such resentment toward both his new team and its old boss, Don Revie (underrated Irish treasure Colm Meaney).

"The Damned United" unfolds in a frustratingly nonlinear fashion, but Sheen's masterful portrayal is more than enough to compensate for any harm done to the narrative's pace by its incessant time-hopping. The very definition of antihero, Clough is pretty much a jerk, so it's a testament to Sheen's eager humanity that we're rooting for the arrogant Clough even as we're hoping he gets what's coming to him. (By way of example, one fantastic archival clip shows that even Muhammad Ali felt Clough had a big mouth.) But if Sheen is the brains, then Spall is the heart, as the eroding relationship between Clough and the decent, modest Taylor comes to represent the high price of Clough's ambition.

Fresh off his success bringing our founding fathers to vivid life in the superb HBO miniseries "John Adams," Tom Hooper does an equally fine job on "The Damned United," getting out of the way of his cast (I didn't even get to mention the great Jim Broadbent...until now) and offsetting the expected drabness of 1970's England with brilliantly shot scenes during which restraint might not be another director's choice. Adapted by two-time Oscar nominee Peter Morgan ("The Queen" and "Frost/Nixon") from the novel by David Peace, "The Damned United" blends fact with fiction and should not be taken as gospel. What isn't in dispute, however, is that even the smallest chip on your shoulder can eventually crush you.