Plot Details: This opinion reveals minor details about the movie's plot.

It was a little disconcerting to sit in the arts wing of the movie theatre this afternoon watching The Greatest Game Ever Played for a few reasons.

First, I was with an 11 year-old who wondered aloud, "Whoa, why are we going to this side?" He'd probably been the theatre about 300 times - but never to that side before. And this was a movie he picked! He looked up at all the artsy movie posters with foreign names and hoped for the best.

The second reason was that this was a Walt Disney film. In the art house side? The details of film distribution are beyond me, but this film is a kind of hidden and Disney-polished diamond in the rough and a must-see for any golf lover. The movie is extremely formulaic and I suspect that it is only very loosely based on the true story, but hey . . . what else did you expect from Disney?

The Plot
Francis Ouimet (played by Shia LaBeouf), a young boy from humble means falls in love with the game of golf. He caddies throughout his boyhood, and grows up to find hard-earned success in the amateur golf circuit. His father (played by Elias Koteas) is a working-class man who is afraid that his son's heart will be broken by the "gentlemen's game" and its bourgeois players. He even asks his son to promise him to give up the game altogether and focus on "honest work."

But Francis' passion for golf is undeniable. After making a solid attempt at putting aside his aspirations and please his father, fate intervenes and he has the chance to qualify for the 1913 U.S. Open with his hero, Harry Vardon (excellently portrayed by Stephen Dillane). Of course, his relationship with his father, his shot at love and a second lease on life are all on the line.

Loose Ends
The movie too quickly becomes all about the underlying class war, and the demons shared by "working men" (like Francis' father and even Harry Vardon) and subsequently inherited by Francis. They all have a different way of dealing with their demons and the writers make a half-a**ed attempt at making the golf course the metaphorical playing grounds for life. The love interest (played by Peyton List) threatens to become just another one of the spoils of this class war, but you never really end up caring enough about the love interest anyway because it's never worked out. The climactic love scene is her watching him playing the Open. Wow. I'm swooning.

Not every parallel between golf and life - as the writers try to draw them, anyway - works. For instance, Vardon's saying There are two kinds of golfers. The kind that can't keep their nerves under control and the kind that win championships isn't really profound enough or plot-driving enough to be repeated over and over again. But it's a device that attempts to clean up the mess of the "working class war" subplot.

I guess it would be different if Ouimet were a woman, or African-American or marginalized in any other way. Then it might have worked. But I think it's enough that Ouimet was the underdog. The caddy that got to play with the pros. Why not do a bit more historical digging and find other interesting things rather than overdramatize a class struggle among all white men? Or at least give more information about the class struggle. Or something. Sheesh.

The Performances
In spite of the mandatory Disney-disinfected-and-overaffected characters, the actors do a marvelous job keeping the audience engaged. Stephen Dillane fights his demons valiantly and Josh Flitter very nearly steals the show as Francis' wry little caddy-turned-coach. I cried at the end, but I also cry at the end of each and every Extreme Home Makeover episode I've ever watched - including reruns.

Why does Abraham Lincoln keep following Harry Vardon? It's fricken' 1913!
Okay. There's no way around this weird facet in the movie. These guys in top hats keep materializing on the golf course to "haunt" Harry Vardon. It's just too silly and not supported. It doesn't pay off ever either, so . . . I simply ask, why?

The ONLY thing that can possibly make up for that is all of the incredible golf shots and camera angles. Even if it's all fake, it's still fun to think those shots are happening and you're seeing them from those kewl angles.

Overall, anyone even mildly interested in golf would probably at least find this movie to be very satisfactory. Too bad a couple of Disney writers scrubbed clean the grit of history and injected too much saccarine for it to remain plausible. Still good for a little cotton candy cinema, though.



Cast
Francis Ouimet.......Shia LaBeouf
Harry Vardon......Stephen Dillane
Eddie Lowery......Josh Flitter
Sarah Wallis.......Peyton List
Arthur Ouimet.......Elias Koteas
Mary Ouimet.......Marnie McPhail
Ted Ray........Stephen Marcus
Lord Northcliffe......Peter Firth
John McDermott.......Michael Weaver

Runtime: 120 min

Country: USA
Language: English
Color: Color
Sound Mix: DTS / Dolby Digital / SDDS

My Movie Reviews:
Edges of the Lord
The Keys to the House
The Dresser
The Return

Also see:
The Four Cornerstones of Winning Golf

Recommended: Yes

Video Occasion: Good for a Rainy Day
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children up Ages 8