Un juego de caballeros

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.

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.

Liked this movie very much. Not just a golf film. Has a lot of good messages about life. My husband also enjoyed it and did like the golf story in it. Well acted by all involved. I recommend it for men and women. A little language, but made movie real world.

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.

This film exposes the country club life, where the elitist a think they're better because of they're station in life, even over the other members in they're own club. A young golfers life is changed when he realizes how perverse the life he thought he wanted was and learns life lessons from an ex-pro who hung up his clubs for the very same reasons.