This movie is NOT about GOLF!

Rating: 10/10 (4 December 2000)

It's about LIFE. If you don't realize that, you probably won't enjoy it. That being said, this film is one of my favorites of the year. The acting is very good, especially by Damon and Smith. Charlize Theron, who I began admiring from "Devil's Advocate", is passable here but she has some problems with the accent.
The cinematography and costume design are all top-notch.

I'll admit, I thought this was a movie about golf until I saw the whole thing through. I am not an avid golf fan, though I played a little in school and used to watch some of it on TV, to relax. So I wasn't exactly revved up to see the film.
However, it won me over. The style, mood, and metaphors really blew me away. The story is slighly cliched, if only for the existence of movies like "The Natural", which also featured an older guy returning to a sport he previously excelled at, with a blonde woman cheering him on from the sidelines. But where "The Natural" was a fantasy and didn't have much of a message, "...Bagger Vance" digs deeper and has more of a philosophy behind it. And if you think you can predict who will win the golf tournament in the end, you are wrong.
Do yourself a favor - be open minded and go see a movie that happens to use golf as a way of giving its message.