Great golf & special fx = good sports drama, poignant family story

Rating: 9/10 (21 September 2005)

From the folks who brought us 'The Rookie', 'Remember the Titans' as well as lesser known 'Miracle' comes a true story about golf.
he scene is set at the end of the 19th Century, a time of change, then fills in social, historical and personal context over two dozen years that builds to perfection to the 1913 US Open championship, which sorts through a tough field to a playoff between the worlds best and an unknown local talent diverted from his eventual career in business.
Pitted against each other the two share some backstory. Each has inner demons to contend with: The reigning champion, Britain's Harry Vardon (Stephen Dillane) who still is considered among the best ever but cannot secure membership in England's clubs. The young amateur, Francis Ouimet (Shia LaBeouf), from across the street and a working-class, immigrant family.
Director Bill Paxton succeeds in a number of ways to blend and balance. One is the way he presents the parents with understanding. Mother (Marnie McPhail) and father, Elias Koteas in a finely tuned performance by the only known name in a capable ensemble, grapple with refreshing compassion. Modern sensibilities often get in the way of historical accuracies; not so here.
With shades of international intrigue, Greatest Game is rooted in the struggles of common people to rise above station and means. Young Ouimet (Matthew Knight) grows to love the sport as he chips into the household coffers from his experience as caddy to the members of the country club across the street.
Heckled as 'caddy boy' by his more privileged classmates, he wins the state high school championship. Ouimet is then recruited to seek the US Open to the chagrin of his father who knows more in his eyes than he speaks. His mother takes him shopping on the day Vardon is holding an exhibition and the later drama is foretold in a brief lesson from the compassionate champion that wounds the boy in a way that will arm him with an inner courage that he will need.
In a rare accomplishment, the inner game of golf is captured effectively while adding to the storyline rather than detract. Expect to hear bits of golfing ideologue from the movie in your next foursome.
The production values are excellent and somehow the choice use of outstanding special effects doesn't get in the way. Have you ever followed the arc of a driven golf ball into the sky wondering about its perspective? Well, now you can know. It's every bit as fun as you can imagine.
Greatest Game is a great golf story, getting the game right, but also works on multiple levels. (Perhaps the reason an informal exit poll of couples from the sneak preview revealed unanimous satisfaction.) The look into Vardon as preeminent British golfer who can't even get into the country clubs on which he plays due to longstanding class prejudices, offset by the Brookline amateur upstart who can't get the game out of his system, has all the right supporting pieces that includes a capable cast, rich cinematography that evokes the personal as well as the historical period. With a healthy sense of humour, romance and a human drama of pursuing sporting dreams with the days' stark realities placed in sharp but rich bas relief, 'Greatest Game' scores well as a date movie.
The only weaknesses are small deficiencies in the script and a false note in the first steps of romance. Nothing that gets in the way of the good time.
'The Greatest Game Ever Played' opens September 30th.
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