Lucas Black and Robert Duvall hit the links in SEVEN DAYS IN UTOPIA
SEVEN DAYS IN UTOPIA (Matthew Dean Russell, 2011)
Opens Friday, September 2
www.sevendaysinutopia.com
Watching Matthew Dean Russell’s golf flick, Seven Days in Utopia, is like spending 105 minutes in a sand trap with no way out despite repeated desperate efforts to escape. Based on the book Golf’s Sacred Journey: Seven Days at the Links of Utopia by David L. Cook, Seven Days in Utopia is the unholy child of The Karate Kid and Caddyshack, an evangelical tent show disguised as a soft-hearted sports movie. Lucas Black stars as Luke Chisolm, an amateur golfer who has a major meltdown on the last hole of a qualifying tournament, then drives off the road while attempting to maneuver around a cow. He winds up on a ranch owned by former golf pro Johnny Crawford (Robert Duvall, who really should have known better) in the small, close-knit town of Utopia, Texas. Luke agrees to spend a week with Johnny, who is prepared to teach him not just about golf but about life because, well, playing the game of golf the right way puts you on the path to righteousness. Luke quickly takes a liking to a young waitress, Sarah (Deborah Ann Woll), angering Jake (Brian Geraghty), a local boy who thinks that she belongs to him. Meanwhile, Kathy Baker and Melissa Leo have no idea why their agents allowed them to take such small, insignificant roles in this tedious tale (unless their faith got the better of them too). Clichéd scene after clichéd scene leads to a big showdown on the links with real-life professional golfer K. J. Choi as T. K. Oh (get it!?), but don’t forget that Luke has his trusty Holy Bible with him to help him keep hitting that little white ball into those little cups. The film ends with one of the most jaw-droppingly embarrassing finales ever, one that involves viewers having to visit a website where they can learn more about Cook’s evangelical Sacred Journey. Seven Days in Utopia is little more than a boring, hackneyed vanity project whose ultimate mission is all too clear.