Today I would like to say a few words about a movie that is very dear to me, Tin Cup. For those of you who are unfamiliar with this movie let me try and give you a sense of it. Tin Cup is a sports movie (golf) starring Kevin Costner and Rene Russo. The movie is about a man who is a very talented golf player who likes to take big risks and has consequently never had much of a career. All of this changes when he meets a woman he wants to impress (who is dating his former college gold partner who is now a professional golfer). He decides the best way to impress her is to get into the US Open and win it and therefore prove his worth.
I don't usually like to outline stories because I feel like even the greatest stories ever told can be reduced to utter silliness. That being said I think it is important to have a sense of what you are getting into with this movie before you begin watching.
Why is this?
For one because it is Kevin Costner. It seems he bothers many people. I think he bothers people when he plays roles where he is supposed to be heroic, or noble, or exceptional in some way. For the most part he is none of those things in this movie. True, he is a very good golfer. He is not the greatest golfer who ever lived.
This movie isn't really about golf though, in the way that nearly every movie about golf is not about golf. So the game of golf serves as a metaphor for life. Fine. What makes this such a wonderful movie is that it is about a man who is flawed in a very realistic, normal way. What he struggles to overcome is his own nonsense, all the while lacking self-awareness and introspection.
What makes this movie very, very enjoyable for me is that it is a movie that is about feeling and emotion and not thought. The cerebral character (played by Rene Russo) is really no more clever or together than the more instinctual character played by Kevin Costner.
At it's heart I think this is just a movie about people and how they get through life. I enjoy it because it has wonderful friendships, and wonderful fights. There are great successes and failures and that in the end there is something of a message.
This isn't a deep movie and it certainly is not a serious one. All the same it is most certainly about something. I recommend it if you are looking for something warm and fun to watch.