E-Mail This Article to a Friend THE GREATEST GAME EVER PLAYED

115 MINUTES | BOSTON COMMON + FENWAY + FRESH POND + CIRCLE/CHESTNUT HILL + SUBURBS

This sweet, inspiring true story of Francis Ouimet, a kid from Brookline (played by Shia LaBeouf) who infiltrates the "gentlemen’s game" of golf and wins the 1913 US Open, was adapted by Mark Frost from his book of the same name. Francis is something of a prodigy, so there are many extended golfing sequences, but what keeps the film from becoming formulaic is the parallel story of legendary British golfer Harry Vardon (Stephen Dillane), who’s Francis’s chief competition at the Open but becomes one of his admiring supporters. Both men are from working-class backgrounds, and their exclusion as members from the clubs they play at gives the standard underdog story a dramatic lift. Director Bill Paxton (yes, the actor) doesn’t preach, but his gentle demonstration of how these two competitors taught the ruling class a thing or two is a surefire crowd pleaser.