From Walt Disney Studio.
It's still called "a game for gentlemen," but that was even truer of golf back in 1913, when a young working-class upstart challenged one of the world's best players in the U.S. Open. That classic match is the subject of this charming, low-key movie directed by longtime actor Bill Paxton, whose Frailty (2001) revealed him to be just as talented behind the camera as in front of it. His latest effort is no less impressive. Shia LaBeouf plays Francis Ouimet, the son of immigrants, who grows up near a Massachusetts golf course and falls in love with the game, for which he shows remarkable aptitude at an early age. Despite the protests of his hardworking father (Elias Koteas), who believes that men should stay within their own class, Francis enters the U.S. Open and competes against British champion Harry Vardon (Stephen Dillane), himself the product of a modest background. Although the film offers some very slight villainy in the form of Vardon's sponsor, newspaper magnate Lord Northcliffe (Peter Firth), the principal conflict is the match itself. Anyone who has ever drowsed his or her way through a televised golf tournament will be surprised by the degree to which Paxton generates suspense from this event. He and his technical-effects people find infinite ways to show a golf ball's passage through the air and along the ground, using different vantage points and precise editing to enhance the dramatic value of each stroke. In other ways, though, the film is fairly typical of its genre: The underdog with preternatural ability and supreme confidence rises to an inspiring challenge from more experienced, accomplished players. Still, Paxton's inventive direction makes it more than your average Rudy wannabe.