 The Greatest Game Ever Played may well be the polar opposite of A History of Violence. Whereas Violence is generally being praised as a unique work of cinema art, Game is being viewed as a paint-by-the-numbers commercial filmmaking. Not that there's anything wrong with that, many critics hasten to add. A.O. Scott in the New York Times describes the movie -- about the principal golfing competitors in the 1913 British Open -- as "a canny piece of feel-good entertainment." He adds, "Predictable though it is, the picture is rousing and well paced. ... This is not the greatest sports movie ever made, and it doesn't try to be. It aims for par, and makes it." Bob Strauss in the Los Angeles Daily News uses another golf metaphor, calling it "a straight shot down the fairway, predictably pleasing by not veering off into anything too interesting." Other critics bestow similar restrained praise on the movie. Carrie Rickey in the Philadelphia Inquirer calls it "an affectionate ode to sportsmanship." How true is the story? None of the critics apparently tried to find out. Roger Ebert in the Chicago Sun-Times writes: "I have no idea if the movie is based, stroke for stroke, on the actual competition at the 1913 U.S. Open. I guess I could find out, but I don't want to know. I like it this way." John Anderson in Newsday presumes that "authenticity is sacrificed for a film that will please the largest audience possible. And it may in fact be large." |
