"I know better."

Rating: 7/10 (29 August 2006)

This is another one that I recently re-watched on cable. I must upgrade my collection to include the DVD. Of course, there are reviews which will attack its sentimentality; get over it!! It amazes me that so many film goers can't view a movie with a positive and sophisticated charm without rolling their eyes or sticking their finger down their throat. (As if we don't have enough coarse, angry, 'edgy' films in release already.) I don't mind Redford's Joe Hardy-like ability one bit, because success- for all of his skill and talent- still doesn't come to him easily. He must suffer a physical tragedy, be elusive with his greedy contemporaries, and finally deal with the past, which he spends the entire movie trying to hide. The one nitpick I have with the whole film was the painfully obvious soft-focus photography used to disguise Redford's age. It isn't so bad in the first reel when he's supposed to be a teenager (and the camera shoots him in silhouette and at length), but later, when he's supposed to be between 36 and, say 40, he just *isn't*. Glenn Close is radiant as his love from childhood, and shines in a memorable scene when they are first reunited at one of his games. After he goes into a foreshadowed slump, it is the arrival of Close (angelically back lit, and whose presence he senses even before seeing her) that brings him back to winning. Singularly gorgeous.