It’s a Disney film, and it’s geared toward kids, but golf enthusiasts of any age should not be deterred by these facts. “The Greatest Game Every Played” is a likable sports movie, based on a true story that reverberates through golf history.
| “The Greatest Game Ever Played” HHH
Good fun: There’s a decency about this true story, based on the 1913 U.S. golf Open, that carries it through. Rated: PG for language. Now showing: Alderwood 7, Everett 9, Galaxy 12, Marysville 14, Mountlake 9, Metro Cinemas, Pacific Place 11, Woodinville 12, Cascade Cinemas. |
The game in question was played in 1913, when the U.S. Open was galvanized by an unlikely match-up: the storied British champion Harry Vardon found himself challenged by a 20-year-old American amateur, Francis Ouimet.
The film sets up this showdown in an admirable way: Instead of painting Vardon as a villain, we learn about his life while we are watching Ouimet’s impossible climb.
Both men were from working-class origins, completely out of place in the snooty realms of the country club. Even after Vardon had become a great golfer, he couldn’t join the club, in the literal and figurative sense.
Ouimet, played by “Holes” star Shia LeBeouf, is depicted as a plucky lad who bucks the feelings of his hard-bitten father (Elias Koteas). The working-class Ouimet family lives next to the tony golf course in Brookline, Mass., and Francis grows up caddying.
Dad wants Francis to join a profession and put away the golf nonsense, but a couple of high rollers at the club notice the boy’s talent and find him a spot in the Open.
The early sections of “Greatest Game” are conventional growing-up stuff, with a canned quality and a pedestrian delivery. This movie gets better as it goes along, especially when we reach the U.S. Open.
The director, Bill Paxton, lays on the period costumes and flavor, but in a much less pretentious way than, say, “The Legend of Bagger Vance.”
Paxton, an actor whose first directed film (“Frailty”) was much weirder than this one, stubs his toe only by including some digital effects intended to jazz up the hitting of a golf ball.
It’s an unnecessary bit of juice that suggests someone was afraid the audience would get bored by watching pipe-smoking men putter around after a little white ball.
In fact, the competition is exciting. (People sometimes make fun of golf on TV, but close matches can actually be riveting to watch.) And the true-life heroics are fun, such as Ouimet’s insistence on sticking with his 10-year-old caddy (Josh Flitter) instead of a more professional helper.
Plus, this is one of the rare movies to address the issue of class, especially in our wealth-loving era. Stephen Dillane, who plays Vardon, has some great moments burning with fury at the snobbish attitudes of golf’s
The movie has its limits, but it has a decency about it that’s worth noting. And it’s a rare film that should please a 10-year-old caddy or an 80-year-old duffer.
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