Francis gets that chance of a lifetime when, encouraged by those who have seen him play, he is recruited as an amateur to play in the 1913 U.S. Open, a position that will pit him against Vardon, his idol, as well as at odds with his strict father (Elias Koteas), who wants his son to know “his place�? and learn an “honest trade�?. What both Vardon and Francis don’t realize about each other is that they have more in common then just their love of the game: both coming from impoverished backgrounds, they are not what society at the time generally approved of as desirable players of the “gentleman’s sport�?. Throughout the narrative, both characters are faced with indignities thrust upon them by their so-called “betters�?. Even after proving himself time and again on the links, Vardon still faces such prejudice, while Francis is constantly belittled as “that caddy�?. Through sheer force of will and his God-given talent, Francis proves all the naysaying snobs wrong, ultimately ending up going tee-to-tee with Vardon, his inspiration in more ways then he is aware of, in the final round.

(c) Disney

Paxton handles this social examination with a deft touch, save for some overt, heavy-handed symbolism of a quartet of stovepipe-hatted specters who haunt Vardon. Picking up a similar thread from his first feature directorial effort, Frailty, he touches on the complexities of father/son relationships with the father’s subplot; although often swathed in shadows, Francis’ father never becomes the “villain�? of the piece, as a lesser talent would have turned him into. Being an actor himself (with such modern classics as Aliens, Apollo 13 and Titanic on his résumé), Paxton of course has an affinity for the craft and brings out some fine work from this mostly no-name cast, most notably with Marnie McPhail (who as a teen starred in the Disney Channel series The Edison Twins) as Francis’ supportive mother and Stephen Marcus (so memorable as Nick the Greek in Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels) as Ted Ray, Vardon’s partner, a “meat and potatoes�? kind of guy with a mean right hook who can whack a golf ball with such force that it will pierce the London phone book. As Vardon, Dillane captures the wounded soul beneath the champion, while LaBeouf, with his deep brown saucer eyes, is reminiscent of a (very) young Jimmy Stewart. As Francis’ fictitious love interest, Peyton List looks a good decade too old for him, though one can definitely see why he would want to impress her.

But about halfway through the film a pint-sized dynamo walks in and just about steals the whole movie out from under everyone. In real life, Francis’ caddy was the ten-year old Eddie Lowery, a feisty little guy who knew the game of golf better then anyone twice his age or size. Here he is played by the young Josh Flitter, who joins the ranks of such precocious scene-stealing Disney kid stars as Kevin Corcoran and Spencer Breslin. The friendship that develops between Francis and Eddie frames the heart of The Greatest Game Ever Played, a film that may well be the greatest golf movie ever filmed.