Double Bogey

Ooey, gooey 'Legend of Bagger Vance' stuck in the sand

By Paul Tatara
CNN.com Reviewer

(CNN) -- How did Robert Redford turn into such a stringently old-fashioned filmmaker? His latest effort, "The Legend of Bagger Vance," is an underwritten Spielbergian golf fable starring Matt Damon, Charlize Theron and Will Smith. Apparently, Redford couldn't decide if he was making a sports movie, a love story, or a hippy-dippy tract about melding with the universe. The final product might as well be called "A Fairway Runs Through It."

Jack Lemmon appears in a very brief prologue, then supplies narration. The story is told as a flashback, during which Lemmon's character (now played by J. Michael Moncrief) is a relatively engaging 12-year-old. Much of what happens, regardless of whether its supposed to be touched by magic, seems patently phony. It's as if the narrator is remembering an old movie he saw on late-night TV, instead of events from his own life. He tells us that Rannulph Junuh (Damon) was a golfing golden-boy from Savannah, Georgia, whose aura quickly curdled when he lead a platoon of doomed soldiers into a World War I massacre. Rannulph lost both his spirit and his exquisite swing in the ensuing carnage. Redford spends the rest of the movie trying to convince us that healthy spirituality and a smooth golf stroke go hand in hand.

When the war ends, Rannulph's beautiful girlfriend, Adele (Theron), waits for her love to return from Europe...and waits and waits and waits. After a while, she decides to get on with her life. Redford conveys Adele's sudden determination by having Theron slap her thighs and jump up from the chair she's been sitting in, as if you can trace a tidal change in someone's existence to a singular, clear-cut moment. This easy bluntness is a new and unfortunate development in Redford's directorial method. It leaves his cast with little to do except register broad emotions and wrestle with their Southern accents.

Adele's father spent tons of money designing and building the greatest golf course the world had ever seen, right there in Savannah. But the stock market crashed just as he was opening it, and he promptly committed suicide. This leaves Adele with seemingly insurmountable debt. The banks are breathing down her neck, but she's not about to surrender without a fight. She gets all dolled-up and convinces real-life golf legends Bobby Jones (Joel Gretsch) and Walter Hagen (Bruce McGill) to come to Savannah and play a series of rounds against each other. Hopefully, this high-profile tournament will raise enough money to save the course.

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But that's not a ripe enough set-up. The locals have to inexplicably decide that Savannah's own Rannulph Junuh should also participate. Nobody seems particularly concerned that Rannulph, who finally staggered back home after 12 years in exile, now appears incapable of bathing, let alone playing championship-caliber golf. Nevertheless, Rannulph decides to dust off his clubs for the good of the community. There's also a $10,000 pay-off, if, by some act of God, he can actually win.

Enter an act of God. One night, while Rannulph is trying to regain his swing, a mysterious drifter named Bagger Vance (Smith) approaches from out of the darkness. Bagger seems to know everything there is to know about golf, and his homespun psychological guidance eventually has Rannulph blasting gargantuan drives as if the hell of World War I was just a bad dream.

Bagger caddies for Rannulph during the tournament, serving as a sort of itinerant shrink with a pitching wedge. Bagger guides Rannulph through several emotional sand traps, and, by the third act, has him chipping onto the lovingly manicured greens of romance and self-belief. Violins and French horns, as you might expect, register their awe during his ascendance.

Like "A River Runs Through It," "The Legend of Bagger Vance" features a protagonist who has to look deep inside himself to excel at a thoroughly un-cinematic sport. For the most part, the first movie works despite its inherent silliness. Redford manages to align the main character's inner life with a gorgeous, sun-dappled environment. There's something dreamlike about those fishing lines gracefully swirling in the mountain breeze, something pure and righteous. Matt Damon trying to drive a golf ball over a man-made lake with an outdated club is a pretty poor substitute, to say the least.

You've certainly seen worse movies than "The Legend of Bagger Vance," but Redford really blew an opportunity here. All of the actors get shortchanged. Damon and Theron throw off a few sparks during their romantic scenes, and Damon is a convincing golfer. It's just that you can see everything coming a mile away. Nobody even has to shout "Fore!" Rannulph is at such a low ebb when he's introduced, you simply sit back and wait for the gooey, "uplifting" conclusion.

But Smith is the one who really suffers. His easy charm is wasted on a character who mostly resides in the shadows, then repeatedly steps forward to engender "big" moments. He's not a person, or even an angel, for that matter. Redford treats more him like a walking French horn.

There's hardly any objectionable content in "The Legend of Bagger Vance," unless you count a woman who traps a golf ball in her cleavage. The movie, rated "PG," opens nationwide on November 3. 120 minutes.

The Legend of Bagger Vance

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