A Gentleman's Game

Timmy Price (Mason Gamble) is the son of a middle class family whose father belongs to the venerable and exclusive Fox Chase Golf Club. His well meaning father forces him to caddy at the club the summer he turns thirteen. At first Timmy doesn't fit in with the caddies, and is generally ignored as being another "members kid...who come to loop for one day and never come back..." Timmy keeps at the looping (caddying) though and soon discovers his own gift for the game.

While looping Timmy watches the members associate with each other and interact with the staff. Lessons about life and growing up are subtly characterized, often with nothing more than the actual events to relate Timmy's realizations. This is an excellent movie to watch in the "coming of age" genre. The movie is narrated by the "adult" Timmy as he is looking back at this time in his life. One of the strongest aspects of the film is that the whole story is conveyed without the sugary sentimentality or rose colored emotion that is often used to tell a coming of age story. Very refreshing.

I know. You never heard of this movie. You probably never will again. Neither had I, and it turned out to be a complex, intelligent little sports movie about a child golf prodigy who gets the benefit of an education about life while he's sharpening his golf game.

It impresses most of all because it is filled with surprises. Every time you think it is going to go after a cliché, it goes in a completely different direction. You think the kid's dad is an ass? Not so. He's a regular guy who has days when he acts like an ass, like the rest of us. You think the Designated Golf Yoda is going to turn the kid into Nicklaus II? Not so. In fact, he begins by refusing to teach the kid how to play, and he never goes back on his word.

He only gives him one lesson related to golf:

Golf isn't that important. It isn't life.

This must be the most unmarketable film of all time. Every message in this film is something that you'd want your kids to hear. It is about decency, integrity, sincerity, and trying to grow up with perspective. It would be a great PG Disney film. Unfortunately, it is rated R because the dialogue is realistic. That's what life boils down to in Hollywood. If you make a movie for kids that shows them what the world is really like and gives them some approaches to take when they encounter that world, the film will be given an R rating, thus assuring that those kids will never see the film.

Kids are only allowed to see movies which are unrealistic.

So here you have what is essentially a sweet little coming-of-age movie, and no audience. I guess the producers finally figured that out, and abandoned any hope that A Gentleman's Game might have a theatrical release.

On the other hand, there's no reason why adults won't like the film.

* It looks sumptuous, was cast perfectly, and is acted beautifully.

* In addition to the stars, it features rounded performances from Gary Sinese and Philip Baker Hall, two of the greatest character actors in films today.

* The story has an emotional fullness to it, a sense of how life is more than contrived drama and moments engineered for the camera. There are no last-minute rallies or miraculous chips from the rough. There are no "Rocky" moments of ultimate sports triumph.

The dramatic payoff occurs when a man who lost his integrity reclaims it, and a kid who admires him decides he isn't going to give his own integrity up in the first place.

Nice job.

Most comments about "A Gentleman's Games" zero in the sport of golf. While yes, golf is what one sees played here, the film is much more about honesty and how to really be a good human being in a world that seems to reward the ones that are just the contrary. The book by Tom Coyne gets an excellent treatment by its director, J. Mills Goodloe, who is credited with being the adaptation with the author.

Timmy Price, the young man at the center of the story, is being taught by his father how to play golf. In fact, one sees Mr. Price in trying to instill in this young man the rules of conduct, not only on the playing field, but also in life. Timmy is more mature than his young age reveals.

Charlie Logan, a club member, suggests the older Price to look for a former caddy of the club, who was considered the best in the field, to guide his son. The meeting with Foster Pearce, the retired caddy now living in a trailer in a beach area, goes nowhere. Pearce is through with the game. Timmy goes to him on his own and starts practicing his swing on the beach. Pearce never coaches the boy to do anything, but we can see his interest as they become good friends. Pearce finally admits the reason for leaving the sport at a crucial point of the film.

A few other things come out in the movie. We see how the kind Charlie Logan, turns against his black caddy in a moment of drunken rage as the other man was trying to shield him from being hit by a golf ball. The locker room politics also gets great play in the film. The incident in which Timmy's caddy friend is abused, is done with taste.

The acting in general is splendid. Young Mason Gamble makes a great Timmy. Not having seen him before, his appearance in the film is excellent as this young actor underplays the role that enhances the film tremendously. Gary Sinise is also subdued in his take of Pearce, the defeated man who suddenly wants to remedy the situation that got him to this point. Dylan Baker an all around actor of stage and screen, who we have seen in many plays, is at his best playing the older Price. Also, Philip Baker Hall has a great moment playing the contradictory Charlie Logan.

This film will not disappoint thanks to the superb direction by Mr. J. Mills Goodloe.

There is no storyline. There is not one story but many and none of them is taken to a satisfying conclusion.

Frustrating : many good ideas potentially. The end result is a mess (ie not a documentary, not a film about golf, not a film about the relationship between the 2 main characters, not a father and son story...).

My vote : 5 / 10.

I had the good fortune of reading the book before seeing the movie. It was an epic of adolescence, a dream of summers gone, a great potential indie film or big budget drama. It somehow got into the hands of a hack, who clearly took notes watching Boogie Nights and Rushmore without actually learning anything at all. The script loses the meat of the book in favor of forced emotional notes and low brow gags. I feel sorry for the actors, since the characters in the book were rich and textured, but cut down to embarrassing charactures in the film. Mason Gamble is great when given the opportunity, as is Dylan Baker, but the skeleton that remains of the story plays out like a bad after school special. Poor people = GOOD, Rich people = BAD.

Though it's almost worth watching to see the Southern California beach where Gary Sinise parks his trailer which is meant to pass for a bay in Delaware.

It's a good book, but an embarrassing turn for first time director Mills Goodloe.

K.