I'm addicted to this movie and can't break the habit.

Rating: 10/10 (8 April 2005)

Every so often I have to put this film on to get a fix. I do that with films that have an undefinable something which gets under your skin. I'm not a baseball fan but I do the same thing with "The Natural." So why am I hooked on this picture? It's certainly not golf. I like the idea of it but I don't play it. I'm not into Zen, or partial to "angel" movies. Yet all of these ingredients are thrown into the hopper and worked over, by what I've come to realize is a brilliant director, and out comes a masterfully told story. I re-watch the movie, not sure what birdies or eagles are, just to daydream that if I followed Bagger's advice I too good be a great player. I watch it for Michael Ballhous's poetic cinematography. Or for the great 30's costumes draped on a ravishing Charlize Theron. Or for the fantastic performances from Charlize, Matt Damon, Will Smith especially the boy explaining why he loves the game so much. Then when I think I'm cured, I have to watch it again for Rachel Portman's incredible score which cements the other-worldliness of this story so beautifully. I guess if I looked hard I could find flaws, but I don't want to. Sometimes it's better not to analyze things that seem in perfect balance without disturbing that balance. I guess time will cure me. I hope it's not too soon.