- Actors: Peter Mullan, Jack Lowden, Ophelia Lovibond, Sam Neill
- Director: Jason Connery
- Format: AC-3, Color, Dolby, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
- Language: English
- Subtitles: English, Spanish
- Region: Region 1
- Rated: PG
- Studio: LIONSGATE
- DVD Release Date: July 18, 2017
- Run Time: 110 minutes
Golf fans may
delight in the idea of seeing a film about the sport in its infancy, when
courses were obstacles themselves and caddies carried the clubs in their arms,
but Tommy’s Honour is more biopic than sports film. We may see our protagonist
play golf, but rarely is the camera interested in the game rather than just the
players. The result is very little golf action, instead focusing on character
and relationship melodrama. In short, this is much more a film for historians
than it is sports fans.
The film traces
the legacy of the man often called the grandfather of golf, because of his
ability to play as well as the many courses that he designed. This man was Tom
Morris (Peter Mullen), but Tommy’s Honour
is actually more about his son, Tommy Morris (Jack Lowden). Although his father
was a legendary player, Tommy surpassed him at a record-breaking young age. The
focus of the film may be on Tommy, as hinted by the title and how much of the
screen time is spent with him, but the heart of Tommy’s Honour lies in the relationship between father and son.
They are both legendary golfers, but have a tumultuous relationship that can
often be as combative as supportive. They often play as doubles, until Tommy’s
skills surpass his fathers, opening his life up to all sorts of opportunities
never given to his father. From there, the relationship between the two becomes
complicated by additional matters, all distracting the film from the game of
golf entirely.
Had the film
decided to just focus on the relationship between Tommy and his father, Tommy’s Honour might have been a bit
more evenly paced. Instead, there are large sections of the narrative that
exclude Tom entirely, focusing instead on Tommy’s romantic love interest. And
this relationship takes the narrative on another unnecessary detour, because
Tommy’s woman of choice is Meg Drinnen (Ophelia Lovibond), a woman shamed from
a past pregnancy out of wedlock. As romantic as this narrative can be, it often
feels like a separate film from the one about golf.
When the film becomes distracted by
the gossip and respectability of Meg, the narrative feels better suited for a
TV show or miniseries, which would allow the story to meander with more freedom.
And this is not the only distraction about the social constructs of the time,
as Tommy is often seen to be reaching out to be a part of the upper class with
his winnings. Once again, this only takes us further away from a film about the
beginnings of a sport, and more into ideas about the birth of the idea of
celebrity. It isn’t just that there are so many splintered storylines, it is
that they rarely seem to be working together to tell a story.
Even with all of these various themes
and subplots fighting against each other for screen time, Tommy’s Honour still could have been an exciting film. With this
much character development, the filming of the golf sequences could have had
much more impact, but they are rarely filmed in such a way that embraces the
spectacle or suspense of the game. Far too often we are stuck watching
characters swing without even seeing where the balls land. All there is to
judge the quality of their shot is the reaction from the crowds watching, and
this just feels like a cruelly dull way to film a sports movie. Even when we do
see shots taken, it is usually a put, and even those are often unimaginatively
filmed.
The DVD only has one special feature,
but it is a fairly in-depth making of featurette with an appearance by golfer
Jordan Spieth.
Entertainment Value:
5/10
Quality of
Filmmaking: 7.5/10
Historical
Significance: 4/10
Special Features: 4/10
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