Prospect Park, Utopia Pictures,
Lucas Black, Robert Duvall, Melissa Leo, Deborah Ann Woll, Robert Bear, Brian Geraghty, Madison Burge, Jerry Ferrera, Sarah Jayne Jensen, Joseph Lyle Taylor, Josh Painting
Luke Chisholm is having a bad week. He is a debuting pro golfer, and his pushy father is his caddie. On the last hole of a championship match he should have won, he had a huge meltdown and lost his cool and got a 14 on the last hole. To make it worse, the golf channel got it all of film, and now he’s a goat everywhere he goes. Furthermore, his father just walked out on him. So driving aimlessly he sees a surprising site and didn’t notice a bull standing in the middle of the road. Before he knows it, he’s in a ditch and stuck in the tiny Texas town of Utopia for a week while his car is being repaired. But he meets Johnny Crawford (Robert Duval) a pro golfer who promises to change his life if he stays 7 days in Utopia.
It has been a long time since I’ve seen a true G rated movie. Heck, even Disney Cartoons pull at least a PG anymore. But this is really interesting film. It’s about golf, naturally, but there are a lot of good life lessons here too. This is obviously a christian movie, but without any push towards proselytizing you in the least. They let golf tell the story. Robert Duval is great. He’s patient, and completely believable as the crusty old golf pro who’s out to teach a young guy to slow down and enjoy life a little. There are a lot of lessons.
There are a lot of complaints that this is a rip-off of “Cars”. Well, it’s surprisingly how identical the story is, and the lesson is almost the same. Additionally, there is not an ending to this film. At the critical second of the final touchdown, they cut away to an advertisement to a web site. You’ll want to go to the website to see the ending, but that is a cheesy way to advertise the sequel and sell a few more books! But all in all, this is a wonderful film, and one you can catch on Cable or as a downloaded film. It’s a minuscule budget (not sure how they afforded Duval). But there’s nothing not to like about this movie. I highly recommend it for the whole family! This is a great morality story!
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