The Legend of Bagger Vance

Isn't it ironic that Robert Redford, the Sundance sugar daddy of independent film, seems to direct movies (see also: The Horse Whisperer) in the utterly conventional, soft-focused Hollywood melodramatic vein? Granted, he's good at it, but while there's a certain beauty and poetry to his latest--a golf-as-philosophy fable--it's a Hallmark card kind of beauty and poetry. Matt Damon stars as a once-great golfer, shell-shocked in the trenches of World War I and trying half-heartedly to drag himself out of a private abyss of drink and self-pity. His therapy is to become the hometown hero in a big exhibition tournament, playing against the two greatest golfers in the world at a struggling, Depression-era country club inherited by the beautiful girl (Charlize Theron) he just couldn't face after returning home a broken man. The title character is a folksy, Southern, porch swing spirit guide, played by Will Smith (who speaks like a Hallmark card), heaven-sent to help Damon find his game again. While passably entertaining, Redford's latest falls victim to underdeveloped characters and sentimental contrivances. Optional. (R. Blackwelder)