Will the erstwhile golf legend who now dispenses sage life advice eventually confront his own demons? Will the clueless clod of a dad figure out what it really means to be a father…and a man? And will the new links phenom learn that life isn't always fair, even if you've got the sweetest tee shot since the Golden Bear was a cub? Put it this way: if you're, oh, 15 minutes into this movie and can't already answer those questions, then you're hereby sentenced to ten years of watching Saved by the Bell reruns. It's not that director and co-writer J. Mills Goodloe hasn't made a pretty good movie. The cast, including Gary Sinise (the legend), Dylan Baker (the dad), Mason Gamble (the kid), Philip Baker Hall and others, is good, and the story even deals with a few serious issues (country club racism, for instance). It's just that it's a wee bit, shall we say, on the nose. Pretty much everything goes as expected--the scenes are predictable, the characters stereotypical--at least until the end, when a child porn side story seems to come out of nowhere and leads to a pat, flat finale. That notwithstanding, A Gentleman's Game is a worthy enough addition to the list of golf movies; if it's not as hip as Tin Cup, at least it's not as pretentious as The Legend of Bagger Vance. Recommended. (S. Graham)
A Gentleman's Game
First Look, 110 min., R, VHS: $89.95, DVD: $24.98, Aug. 20 Volume 17, Issue 5
A Gentleman's Game
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As of March 2022, Video Librarian has changed from a four-star rating system to a five-star one. This change allows our reviewers to have a wider range of critical viewpoints, as well as to synchronize with Google’s rating structure. This change affects all reviews from March 2022 onwards. All reviews from before this period will still retain their original rating. Future film submissions will be considered our new 1-5 star criteria.
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