THE LEGEND OF BAGGER VANCE --------------------------
LAURA:
Rannulph Junuh (Matt Damon) has it all. He's an amateur golf champion whose girlfriend, Adele Invergordon (Charlize Theron), is the beautiful daughter of Savannah's wealthiest man. However Junuh is so traumatized by his experiences in WWI, he returns to Savannah a broken man. He makes no attempt to see Adele, preferring to play cards in a shack on his estate and drink to forget.
Meanwhile, Adele has lost her father and is on the brink of losing his last creation, the Krewe Island golf resort, because of the depression. She sells all she has to come up with a $10,000 golf exhibition prize and charms the era's two (real life) greatest golfers, ladies man Walter Hagen (Bruce McGill, "The Insider") and Ivy League grand slammer Bobby Jones (Joel Gretsch, TV's "The Bold and the Beautiful") to compete, but Savannah demands one of their own play. Young Hardy Greaves (J. Michael Moncrief, Jack Lemmon in present day), the story's narrator, proposes Junuh and bicycles off to deliver him.
Junuh declines Hardy, but goes out to swing a few anyway. Out of the darkness arrives a stranger, Bagger Vance (Will Smith), who offers to caddy for Junuh for $5 guaranteed. Bagger has a way of talking Junuh back into his game and soon Savannah is gripped in a home town media frenzy.
"The Legend of Bagger Vance" is a signature Robert Redford film, evoking his starring turn in "The Natural" and the nostalgic glow of his own "A River Runs Through It." Golf is used as a metaphor for life as Bagger advises Junuh and his young protege Hardy 'you can't win the game, you can only play the game,' and 'find your place in the field - you need to find your swing - get out of its way and let it find you.'
The cast is generally fine. Smith holds back, speaking softly, letting his words form a whisper cloud around Junuh's head. His non philosophical comments lend the film most of its humor. It's a confident performance. Damon is OK, if unexceptional as the conflicted Junuh, although he does have a real shining moment when he explains to Hardy why he drinks. Theron's mostly decorative, with a Southern accent that wavers in and out.
Character actor Bruce McGill is fun as the lusty Walter Hagen. His golfing style, where severe missteps are countered with brilliant catchup maneuvers, is fun to watch, particularly when he's sizing up his next move, barefoot in water wielding his ever present smoke. Even better is Joel Gretsch as the amazingly talented Bobby Jones. It's Gretsch, not Damon, who's the real Redford Golden boy standin. He creates an elegant, upstanding athlete. Young Moncrief has a wide-eyed face and displays real enthusiasm for the game of golf and hero worship of Junuh.
Redford really involves us in the two day 36 hole game, visualizing the act of focus and creating suspense in the outcome. Unfortunately his present day bookending of the tale with Jack Lemmon recalls the similarly poor use of the device in "Saving Private Ryan." The central romance is underbaked as well, mostly because we're not given enough background on why Adele remained single for a decade. The script rather lamely has them declare their attraction as 'dancing well together.'
Production and costume design are first rate. Several scenes set at the resort recall the period flashbacks of "The Shining."
If you can invest in the mysticism of Will Smith's supernatural Caddy (the only black man apparently admitted into Krewe Island's locker room) and the old-fashioned storyteling/filmmaking on display here, you may be surprised at the rewards to be found. Cynical filmgoers should avoid this one.
B
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