{"id":1085,"date":"2017-04-13T08:05:17","date_gmt":"2017-04-13T13:05:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theaposition.com\/tomharack\/?p=1085"},"modified":"2017-04-13T14:12:42","modified_gmt":"2017-04-13T19:12:42","slug":"morris-saga-covers-lots-of-sod","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/tomharack\/golf\/personalities\/1085\/morris-saga-covers-lots-of-sod","title":{"rendered":"Morris Saga Covers Lots Of Sod"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"logo\"Such is the ongoing harangue in the golf industry about boosting the game\u2019s popularity that the press material for Tommy\u2019s Honour<\/i> reflexively raised the question: Is this the movie that finally makes golf seem cool to non-golfers? After all, Tommy\u2019s Honour <\/i>is also a travelogue, a love story, and a family drama of the father-son variety. This would seem to automatically expand its appeal beyond a genre whose spectrum of themes consists of mystical mumbo-jumbo and Caddyshack, <\/i>with little in between.<\/p>\n

And there\u2019s plenty to like about Tommy\u2019s Honour<\/i>, starting with excellent production values in creating the often brooding Scottish milieu and the crusty relationship between Old Tom Morris and Young Tom. To that end, the cast isn\u2019t made up of your usual rich Hollywood stars; OK, maybe they\u2019re rich UK stars, but it\u2019s authentically exotic. Morris pere<\/i> is played by Peter Mullan, of Transpotting<\/em> fame but instantly unrecognizable under a wooly mammoth of a beard.<\/p>\n

(Connoisseurs of facial hair will love this movie, which is also something of\u00a0 a costume drama. Some great golfing duds, in particular.)<\/p>\n

\"Young

Young Tom can really hit a golf ball — and also talk trash.<\/p><\/div>\n

Jack Lowden, he of Dunkirk<\/i>, is Young Tom and is adept at switching gears\u00a0between earnest, intense but likable kid to rapping a fine, jaunty tune to Ophelia Lovibond when the occasion presents itself. Not that I blame him. Previously appearing in Guardians of the Galaxy<\/i>, she\u2019s perfect here as the spunky, radiantly cute love interest. The closest to a household name on hand is Sam Neill, who plays an impossibly unctuous club president.<\/p>\n

In fact, one of the things that I really liked about Tommy\u2019s Honour<\/i> is that \u2014 paean to the game that it avowedly is \u2014 it certainly doesn\u2019t sugarcoat it. Based on the book by golf writer Kevin Cook (who wrote the screenplay with his wife, Pamela Martin), you could argue that on balance, the movie shows that most of what the game\u2019s detractors say is true: That it reeks of class tensions and that its putative code of honor is just a cloak for hypocrisy.<\/p>\n

In golf\u2019s early rough-and-tumble days, according to the movie, matches were \u00a0sometimes settled with fisticuffs. And in its depiction of such passions, the narrative acknowledges the frequently obsessive-compulsive allure of golf, which is central to the Toms\u2019 conflict.<\/p>\n

If I have a quibble with the treatment, it\u2019s that there could have been more of the Scottish countryside (there was some) for the young couple to cavort through. But the director, Jason Connery, Sean\u2019s kid, probably wisely moves the proceedings along at just under two hours.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s an engaging story, briskly told, and thus quality entertainment for all. You don\u2019t have to be a golfer to appreciate, say, a couple of stymie situations depicted; but as Gilda Radnor used to say, it wouldn\u2019t hurt.<\/p>\n

Opens tomorrow in 32 theaters nationwide.<\/p>\n

# # #<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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