Fresh off of what many would call a disaster (Waterworld), Kevin Costner returned to the big screen as Roy McAvoy in the film Tin Cup. Another sports film for the enthusiast, this one was about a golf pro working at a Texas driving range. In the middle of nowhere, it is about as far as you can get from the big time, and at first glance it would appear that McAvoy is content with the life he now leads. Living in a Winnebago, which speaks volumes of his level of success to this point, he has stopped aspiring to be more than an employee of the range. Living with him is his long time buddy Romeo Pasar (played by Cheech Marin) who has many of his own interesting quirks at the range. Put the two of them together, and you end up with a lot of funny moments that show of the acting chemistry of the two on screen. This is also the type of character that Costner can pull off best, when he isn't trying to save the world.

One day working at the range, a woman named Molly Griswold shows up, hoping to be trained at playing golf, and she proceeds to get a lesson from the slightly drunk McAvoy. Thrown off his "game" by his obvious attraction to her, he suddenly becomes addicted to being around her, and even though she is attached to someone else, he begins to pursue her. It could be that she is dating his old rival, a teammate on a college gold team, that has found his own success on the pro golf tour. Played by Don Johnson, David Simms is an extremely confident golfer that doesn’t often get denied anything in life. What Simms wants, Simms gets, so to speak. When he offers McAvoy the chance to be his caddy, Roy is at first put off because it would appear that Simms was above him, but needing the money, and longing to be back on the greens, he agrees to it. Due to events on the course, and his growing affection for Molly, he decides that the best course of action is to try and qualify for the U.S. Open to take down Simms.

There are a lot of great comedic elements to Tin Cup, and it was very interesting to me to be able to watch Costner work in another comedic role such as this. McAvoy was one of those sports characters that actually are a lot deeper than he lets on at first, and it comes through when he allows everything to just happen around him, rather than trying to control it all. Rene Russo was also very good in the role of Molly, and the chemistry with Costner was electric at times I felt. I would have liked to see their screen time together increased a little though, because it became more of a golf movie with a romance as the backdrop. While it worked, it left a lot more open to interpretation that would have been interesting to delve into. I would have liked to have seen more of McAvoy’s background, but I guess one of the points of the story was to show that he hadn’t made it anywhere, and didn’t have all that much to look back on.

Regarding the golf sequences, and all of the sense that take place on the course, I think that the story did a really great job at depicting reality. The golf shots all looked very professional, and it seemed that all of the actors knew exactly what there were doing on the course. This gets the audience more into the film, because if you don’t stop to think about whether the golf shots are real or not, you can worry more about whether you like the story or not. The whole cast was also excellently put together, with Russo, Marin, and Johnson all playing their parts quite well. The story was an interesting one, and as I have watched it many different times, it shows me that the film was well enough put together that it is worth owning. Watching McAvoy’s antics on the course is like a mature look at Happy Gilmore (Sandler’s version of this film), and his success if likewise enjoyed by those watching the film. I think Costner should have relied on these type of films to build is status, because he is quite good at being in romantic comedies with a twist, and he doesn’t need spectacular special effects to win over this audience member. I recommend Tin Cup for the way the story is portrayed, the many genuinely funny points of the story, and the strong writing that ends up making the film good from start to finish.





Recommended:
Yes