Needed More Suspense

Rating: 8/10 (18 April 2006)

This is the true story of Francis Ouimet, who was not born on the right side of the tracks, but who had the talent to become the Tiger Woods of his day.
If you are going to title your film The Greatest Game Ever Played you should put more suspense and tension into the last match, the one between Ouimet (LaBeouf)and Harry Vardon (Dillane). There was more tension and suspense between Outmet and his father (who didn't want him to waste his time on this game) than there was in that final match. Golfers who barely have heard the name Ouimet were, of course, sitting on the edge of their seats even though they thought they knew who would win anyway. Golfers do that. They sit up and take notice regardless. And, why is that? Because you have two of the best golfers of the day, for that day, competing and they are dead even for the most part and they are playing in the US Open. For Golfers it doesn't get much better than that.
But, you see, not only do golfers go to the movies, but non-golfers as well go also and this is a much broader audience. And, the suspense just wasn't there for them. Add to this that Harry Vardon also was born on the wrong side of the tracks there was more than enough room for a lot of tension and suspense, but I didn't feel it. And, I play golf. One of the nicest things I learned was that Harry Vardon was always the perfect gentleman who had already won five British Opens. There should also have been more interplay between Ouimet and Vardon to create a friendly tension so to speak.
OK, then how do you create that tension and suspense for that last match? We didn't have the TV analysts we have today, but the director could have showed us every shot on a certain hole that made a difference and he could have had the sports news-writers comment among themselves how things were going and well, doing a shot-by-shot analysis. But, show us the complete hole for the shots by each. OK, there was some of that, but nothing that brought any tension into play, and the shots were isolated ones. A player in a trap trying to get out, a player with a long putt. No tension here.
I still liked this movie. Good thing this wasn't in 3-D. The way the balls were shot towards the audience I would have been in the back row in no time at all. Really good animation. I guess that's what it was, and those shots were terrific. I'm still ducking.
Two things that I didn't understand. 1) What happened to the rich-girl who followed Ouimet around and 2) We weren't told what Ouimet accomplished afterward unless I missed it.
Overall, great acting performance all around.