Overly sentimental and needlessly mystical guff that no amount of professional polish can minimise

Rating: Null/10 (17 August 2005)

The depression hit the south hard, particularly John Invergordon who commits suicide and leaves his estate (and debts) behind to his daughter Adele. She refuses to let her father's golf course be sold off cheap and decides to organise a high stakes golf tournament between the leading players of the day. However the would-be buyers of the course argue that it should not happen because Savannah is not represented; but a young boy volunteers golfer Rannulph Junuh and the crowd take it up. However Junuh is knackered  he had a very bad war and has lost all ability he once had, although he knows he should step up to the tournament.
The terrestrial television premier of most big films in the UK is usually an event and it is only after multiple screenings that see it gradually slip into being filler material in less key timeslots. So with this film I should have smelled a rat with the fact that it premiered on a normal Friday afternoon  far from being the prime slot that the names involved would suggest it deserves. However bookended with two sentimental TV movies seems a pretty fair place for it to be resting given that it essentially a mushy piece of fluff that will mainly appeal to those that like that sort of stuff. The story is told as a memory, which only serves to make the mush and the sentiment easier to produce (not a good thing) and it does it in spades  a fact not helped by the very slow pace that the whole thing is delivered by. I can forgive it being corny if it doesn't take itself too seriously but my god but it does; line upon line of dialogue are written like scripture and as if they have deep meanings  this stops it being fun or light and just makes it come off as pretentious.
Of course it is still watchable despite this  just. Mainly this is down to the very polished product that it is, although this only manages to partially cover the cracks rather than actually manage to reduce them. This professionalism can be seen in the classy direction but, despite this I did always hope that Redford would put as much into the story and the characters as he did the looks. Without help the cast struggle. Damon cannot do much with his character that look pained occasionally because the war experience is really simplified and never personal or real. However his character looks like it was crafted in detail compared to Bagger Vance and Smith can do nothing with that. At best he just turns on the charm and hopes that he doesn't choke on the amount of corn he has to say  he nearly does it but not quite. Outside of this it also requires a forgiving viewer to ignore that whole Uncle Tom aspect of it and the fact that, in this film, racism does not exist and this stops the period being real. Theron is OK but has little to do while support from McGill and a few others add some degree of class if not substance. I don't care what anyone says, Moncrief was pretty poor, a standard "cute kid" from start to finish.
Overall this is a polished film but it has nothing beyond cheap mush, sentiment and guff that often borders on the pretentious. It fits the daytime schedules well but doesn't deserve any more than that. The cast all struggle with the lack of substance and with this failing it doesn't really matter how many polished shots and swelling musical moments are used because many viewers will simply struggle to care.