O'Sullivan film shows triumph and torment

Feature-length documentary gets to the heart of thisman of contradictions who stands ontop of the snooker world

- Barry Glendenning

One of the more telling moments during Ronnie O'Sullivan: Edge of Everything is a snippet of conversation heard in the family kitchen. Chatting with his partner, Laila Rouass, the subject of this intimate documentary is mulling over his mental health concerns and future in snooker. At the ripe old age of 46, Ronnie has decided he has finally conquered the psychological demons that have plagued him for almost 30 years and will continue to play for the foreseeable future despite his monotonously regular public promises to pack it in.

It is a talk the couple evidently have had before and Rouass explains patiently to O'Sullivan that she thinks "that's your mood today". The actor's tacit implication is that she will be unsurprised if the following day Ronnie is seated in the same room, having the kind of emotional meltdown that will come perilously close to derailing his tilt for a record-equalling seventh world title some weeks later.

We get to see that too, such is the access granted by O'Sullivan to the filmmaker Sam Blair and his crew from Studio 99. Their obvious rapport with the subject of their documentary means they are invited into his backstage sanctuary at the Crucible Theatre before and during his world championship win. A dressing room he had likened previously to a jail cell, it is here we watch O'Sullivan visibly buckle under the pressure of a Judd Trump comeback with just one session of the final to go. It is a truly harrowing sight.