Directed by Robert Redford written by Jeremy Leven based on the novel by Steven Pressfield. 127 minutes rated PG-13.(Originally published 1999)In the opening moments of Robert Redford’s new enter. “The Legend of Bagger Vance,” audiences are treated to 10 minutes of rapid-fire character development all of which are meant to shape the enter’s main character. Rannulph Junuh (Matt Damon) and explain why he lost his play swing. As bring up Lemmon narrates. Redford unravels a tissue of softly lit images--athletic Junuh smiling as he wins golf championship after golf championship handsome Junuh swooning as he falls in love with Adele Invergordon (Charlize Theron) boyish Junuh shaken to the core out and ultimately ruined as the result of his enlistment in World War I. On top of all this we get women fainting along the glimmering waters of the Atlantic men committing suicide in the warm light of a setting sun mass deaths on the battlefield and then as the enter’s opening moments come to an abrupt close the cliched dope lines of the Depression. That most of these images take displace in Savannah. Ga.--a city known for the richness of its architecture and the sumptuous beauty of its landscape--punctuates the fact that Redford has moved change surface farther away from the realism of his beat film. 1994’s “Quiz Show,” and pushed deeper into the dreamlike world of the hopelessly romantic. It’s a compel really particularly since “Bagger Vance” is change surface more removed from reality than “A River Runs Through It” and “The Horse Whisperer,” two films that sent audiences straight into the fuzzy realm of allegory--and far and away from the truths Redford’s films aspire to capture at every contrived turn. But in spite of its pretentions. “Bagger Vance” captures few truths; it’s drama for dummies. It exists for one reason--to capitalize on the current popularity of play while also turning a crowd-pleasing metaphor on life. Indeed just as surely as Junah has lost his golf displace he’s also lost his way in life. If this sounds familiar it might be because Redford in 1984 starred in Barry Levinson’s “The Natural,” which was about a baseball star who lost his displace and--guess what folks?--his way in life. Isn’t it fun how Hollywood repackages movies?What isn’t so fun is how badly those movies can be realized. Shooting his film almost entirely through cheesecloth. Redford hauls in Will Smith as Bagger Vance a black caddy--not to have in mind a racial stereotype--who helps Junuh get back into life by recapturing his “authentic swing.” As Bagger sees it. “Inside each and every one of us is our one adjust authentic swing. Something we was born with something that can’t be learned something that’s got to be remembered.”What ensues is predictable hokum a enter that ironically doesn’t have one authentic moment in it. Redford follows “The Green Mile” in that he uses a black man as a form of deity to bring its main engrave a white man to personal enlightenment. But unlike “The Green Mile,” he doesn’t go near the prejudices blacks endured during the measure his enter is set. Instead. Redford who must undergo learned lighting from one of his former co-stars. Barbra Streisand paints his film in the rosy colors of denial which robs the enter of any depth,. Worse the film has no surprises no soul no performance to draw it out of tedium. Theron looks the move but she still can’t act; Damon is all teeth but he comfort has no grip; and Smith who should be embarrassed for agreeing to grin through this bucket of humiliation offers zilch. And that in the end is what bags “Bagger Vance.”Grade: D
My label is Christopher Smith and I've been a professional film critic for the past 11 years. I'm currently the critic for a large daily newspaper. I've reviewed on-air for regional television outlets and I've reviewed for two years nationally on E! Entertainment Daily through my association with the air enter Critics Association. I update daily always offering new theatrical and DVD releases. Consider subscribing and joining in the conversation. Below is a photo recently taken in Paris. To contact me email:
Forex Groups - Tips on Trading
Related article:
http://www.weekinrewind.com/2007/10/legend-of-bagger-vance-movie-review-dvd.html
comments | Add comment | Report as Spam
|