| legeros.com > Movie Hell > 2000 > Reviews |
THE LEGEND OF BAGGER VANCE is a gentle, genial, Savannah-set, De- pression-era, Jack Lemmon-narrated golf drama about a young-but- already-washed-up pro (Matt Damon) and his appearance at an exhi- bition game important both to the town and his recently blown-off beloved (Charlize Theron). There's the title character, too: an expert-playing, aw-shucks speaking caddie (Will Smith) who, forty minutes in, magically appears out of nowhere to help Damon's char- acter "get his swing back." Fidgeters beware: Robert Redford di- rects with an unhurried-to-the-point-of-pokey hand. And with an annoying pair of kid gloves on. (Witness a grit-less World War I aside that's more muddy than bloody.) Ample amounts of period de- tail at least adds interest when the drama doesn't. Or, for that matter, when you're left huh?-ing at all those unfamiliar charac- ter names. (This is *not* an immediately engaging movie...) And, since this one's also set in the South, the various drawls and as- sorted y'all's sound more movie-real than real-real. What else is new, right? The legend is told in flashback, by a teed-off young boy (J. Michael Moncrief) who appears at the beginning as a Poly- dent-smilin' Jack Lemmon. And, really, any movie that opens with Felix Unger can't be *that* bad, can it? Not that I stayed for the whole thing. In fact, as I was leaving at the hour mark, two *others* were just arriving. Egad, what kind of person walks *in* on a movie halfway through? Sidebar: If screening at the Raleigh Grande, consider arriving five minutes late, lest ye be subjected to the latest CAST AWAY trailer, which just happens to reveal the *entire* film. No thank you very much. (Rated "PG"/127 min.) Grade: W/O Copyright 2000 by Michael J. Legeros Movie Hell is a trademark of Michael J. Legeros